India will soon have the time of its life

As befits the citizens of the world’s most populous — and most vociferous — democracy, Indians have traditionally had scant regard for that Great Dictator called Time, which, along with tide, is said to wait for no man. However, under the dispensation of the current Prime Minister who believes that punctuality is the politeness not only of princes but also of those who hold public office, we have a new initiative to ensure clockwork efficiency. Ten atomic clocks are to be installed in Delhi’s National Physical Laboratory that will enable everyone from internet service providers to the railways to increase ‘accuracy of time’. The country will no longer depend on the US National Institute of Standard and Technology to keep us up to not just the minute, but to the nanosecond. Make in India will also include the devising of ‘Indian Sovereign Time’, instead of Indian Standard Time that only too often turns into Indian Stretchable Time.

However, only time — be it of videshi or swadeshi provenance — will tell how well the country will adapt to such ticktock technology. Perhaps nowhere is India’s native genius for jugaad so inventive as it is in all matters related to horology, the science of temporal measurement. On being asked the time by a customer, the obliging shopkeeper replied, “It’s aquarter to three — but for you, I’ll make it 2.45.”