It's the time to be on time!

You are swamped with work, when you receive a mail, requesting you to come at 4 pm to the cafeteria, to discuss which songs should be sung for the annual day celebrations. You plan your work accordingly; reschedule a meeting with the client, and at 4 pm sharp, you go the cafeteria, to be greeted by empty chairs and tables. You sit there for ten minutes, drumming your fingers on the table, irritation mounting. One person turns up, and apologizes for the delay. You point out that you need to leave in twenty minutes, so can we start the discussion? He suggests that we wait for five more minutes for the others. Five minutes pass by, without any change in the number of occupied chairs. You say, fine, let us at least start. He agrees, and you spend ten minutes trying not to argue with each other. At this stage, the others enter, and they say, "Sorry, we had work", and you say to yourself, "Yeah, and I was surfing on the beach." Anyway it is time for you to leave. They request you to stay on, but you leave anyway, extracting from them a promise that they will come on time the next day. The next day, history repeats itself. What do you do?

I dropped out. I told them that if this is the dedication and sincerity, then I don't want to be associated with this kind of a singing group. They tried to dissuade me, but I did not budge. And I am glad.

I usually do not indulge in much confrontation and argument. But when it comes to people who do not care about other people's time, I become ruthless.

My sister had exams but had promised to help clear some doubts that her junior had. She waited and waited for the junior to arrive, even giving up on her evening walk to accommodate her. But she did not turn up. Then the next day when my sister was deeply immersed in studies, she lands up and says, "Hi, here I am". My sister, being the sweet girl she is, got up to go and help her anyway. But I happened to be around, and forbade her to step out of her room, saying, "If she cannot value your time, you need not help her". But she pacified me, and convinced me that she would spend just five minutes on her. She was true to her word, but I also knew she was very irritated. So I brainwashed her a bit before I left, to make sure this does not happen again.


Why are people like that? If they have a genuine reason for being late, then it's fine. But more often than not, most people just take their own sweet time. "I only follow IST - Indian Stretchable Time", they announce, with pride, while laughing expansively. It irritates me no end. I hate to be kept waiting, and so I do not make people wait. So I just cannot understand what gives people this "Chalta Hai" (Anything’s ok) attitude.

I know some people who say "Anyway the other person will be late, so I will also go late". My argument is - don't do that. Remain true to yourself. If each one of us makes an effort, the whole society can change. It is possible. One more reason they give is "Too much traffic". So? Don't you know Bangalore's traffic? Would you take a risk when you need to catch a flight? Wouldn't you leave much earlier? Then do it here.

If you are held up for some valid reason, then call. Communicate. Let the person who is waiting for you know that you are held up, so that s/he can do something else in the meantime. Do not think this is some kind of a formality. Do this when it comes to your loved ones too. When my husband and I need to go out somewhere during weekdays, I travel from my office to my husband's, and then we go out from there together. I give him an estimate of when I will reach his office, so that he can schedule his activities accordingly. Even if I am just fifteen minutes late, I call him and tell him that, so that he won't pack up prematurely, and he can spend that time doing something useful.

I think that we should start young. Inculcate timeliness in your children. I, in fact, got it because my parents were so particular about keeping time. I always recollect going for dinner invitations on the dot. I even remember the time my father was supposed to pick up a colleague at a particular point, and because the colleague was too late, and did not care to inform him either, my father just drove away. And sure enough, the colleague learnt a lesson.

Fortunately for me, my husband is also a stickler for time, which trait, I am sure, he got from his parents too. Recently, a couple of LIC agents who were supposed to come home were almost an hour late, and had not given any explanation either. My father-in-law just called them and asked them to do a right-about-turn and go back, wherever they might be. Needless to say, at the next appointment, they were at our place before time!

It is possible to change other people's way of thinking, if you lead by example. Why do my colleagues go to the conference room ten minutes in advance for the teleconference with the American client, and why do they go ten minutes late to the meeting organized by their manager? It is because they know that the American will start right on time, but their manager will not. If you want to ape the Americans, then ape this trait.

If you create the impression of being prompt, and get labeled as being particular about keeping time, people will have to co-operate, and hopefully, in the process, they will also change. Am I being too optimistic? Well, the world lives on hope, and I thrive on it!