Timing is everything

 It's been just over a year since my last blog post. This surprised me. It doesn't feel like it was so long ago and yet I can't believe that we are already in August of 2022. We're in the last desperate vestiges of summer. Of 2022. 

Time has become more fluid than ever before and sometimes I wonder if time, similar to gender is a social construct. It has always been a physical one. There's only that much that can be done in a day. A social construct means something else altogether. I get a thrill from simply crossing off mundane tasks like 'organise invoices', 'make payments', 'chase payments'. Can you imagine what would happen when I tick one of those in the big to-do list we all carry in our minds - marriage, a home (rented, let's be real), babies, promotion etc.? It would be the strike through of all strike throughs. We won't get into what happens afterwards although that may be more important. 

Time is weaving and flowing through all of us and around us constantly. Are we making the most of it? I'd like to think that although some things take longer for me than others, I am. I have always been an optimist - the glass is half full. It may not be a chilled glass of champagne (or current sensation - smooth tequila with organic agave that's overpriced and beloved by Delhi/Bombay folks) but it's the cleanest water at the perfect temperature that quenches your thirst like no other. It cools you down and urges you forward. Keep having your daily fill people. The more you absorb from that half glass, the better you'll feel (even at your most delusional, at least you won't be parched). 

My dad always says to me - a minute gone is a minute wasted. This is usually said when I've overslept or haven't moved from my reading nook for a few hours. Staying still, doing nothing significant has almost always been considered a waste of time. Now we're in a new new new age of self reflection hopefully without the filters. We went from being people who were constantly doing something to those who were forced to stop. I always assumed that once we were 'back to normal' after the pandemic, we would unleash ourselves like Karan Johar on next generation Bollywood. In reality, I find that most people have a newfound appreciation for their personal lives and disdain for over the top experiences like the Karan Johar launches of next generation Bollywood. 

While the last few years have created a sense of urgency too, there's a lilting que sera sera soundtrack playing softly in the background. The hustle mentality of earlier that motivated me to compete, to be in a rush towards something, anything has changed into a calmer, melodious yet stronger current that has enabled me to do things on my own speed rather than trying to beat it or worse - trying to fight it. Could this be the wisdom that comes with age? Possibly. I think it's more of us being fed up with trying to be whoever we think others want us to be and finally becoming comfortable in our own skins (post laser, facials and daily intake of glass-half-full-of-perfect-water).  

During the pandemic, I felt grateful that unlike graduating students or parents sending children to school for the first time, I was in a place in my life where I wasn't at the precipice of something. Sure, I could have been at the precipice of a precipice but there's a time and place for everything right? Now I wonder, were the years we 'lost' formative for us millennials too? There was growth - personal and around the waistline. But did we also become more apathetic, fearful or lazy? Did we lose our drive, focus, perspective, confidence? Only time - the healer of wounds, the giver of hindsight and the teacher of experience will tell. 

Time will continue to tick tick boom without us. So make the most of it. Start by reaching parties earlier. Midnight is no time to enter a party if you're coming from home and the invitation said 9pm. We got things to do, place to be, lessons to be learnt, goals to be achieved. And there's only that many times we can hit snooze. 

Was this post a long winded attempt to try and make parties begin earlier? Let's just say that I ticked something off my agenda list for the day.