A time-tripping televised tryst

As trysts with destiny go, there's a twist to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the US Congress that he delivered late last night India time, and afternoon Washington time.

Nehru, as those who know their unadulterated August 14-15 history, got his time zones mixed up - or overlooked them for poetic licence - when he stated that 'at the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom'.

At midnight, if not for the excitement of becoming a free country, most Indians were asleep, while most of the world would have been awake. Television being what it was in 1947 - the first-ever broadcast of the baseball World Series would take place a month-and-a-half after Nehru's speech, and India was still 18 years away from daily telly transmission - no one watched Nehru outside (old) Parliament House 'live'. Radio had to pick up that slack.


To witness Modi's speech to the US Congress on June 22-23, those of us in India interested did tune in. But it was certainly not the usual prime (ministerial) time - usually, by recent tradition, the bewitching hour of 8 pm. Thankfully, the invention of live TV did not do away with recorded videography to be played at one's convenience, over breakfast. But in keeping with Nehru's old bon mot, when 'India slept', the interested 'world' followed the PM wide awake.