We Indians are not known for our punctuality. IST stands for Indian standard time, but more accurately, it stands for Indian stretchable time. Not only are we late as a matter of course, we are rarely apologetic about it… because being late is a kind of default position and people are just supposed to adjust.
Albert Einstein said time is relative. We Indians took in seriously. After all time is a manmade construct.
Those things are mere suggestions, not directions to be followed.
We arrive late at parties, we arrive late to weddings, we arrive late for appointments; we even arrive late to work.
We all have that one friend who consistently lies about where they are and when they’ll reach. They say they're reaching but actually they're still in the shower!
There are some of us who are always, always late. So much so that they are given a different, earlier time of arrival than the rest.
Some of us are like --- why bother to turn up on time; no one else will be there and no one will notice anyway.
Sometimes we take care to try and be on time --- but something always happens to make us late, doesn’t it!
As someone who is always on time, this always happens to me... if I'm lucky. Mostly people don’t even bother to inform when they're running late. And I simply hate being made to wait. I sympathise with this guy.
So Indian Standard Time will remain Indian Stretchable Time. The concept of punctuality shall remain a blurry one to most of us. It has always been thus and shall remain so!
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