Utilise time wisely and fill up your treasures, says MADAN lAll MANCHANDA
We should make the best use of time, avoid wasting it and always remain conscious of the fact that loss of even a moment is a great loss. Some may not be quite aware of the true value of time, but it is for everyone to know that time has remarkably changed fortunes of individuals and nations. History testifies the real worth of time:
“All my possessions for a moment of time’ were the last words ruefully uttered by Queen Elizabeth of England whose reign witnessed all-round prosperity and passed into history as the ‘Golden Age’. Alas! Even the least fraction of time could not be hers for wanting despite the stake being that high.
The miracle of a fleeting moment had left Jehangir spellbound for life when he enquired of Noor Jehan, the rare beauty of her time, as to how one of the two pigeons given to her had flown away. Noor Jehan in all her innocence let the second pigeon fly away in the same manner to provide an answer. Thus Jehangir succumbed to her charms. Dame Fortune smiles on those of her few chosen favourites who make the best use of their time. For them, time turns into a money spinning machine and in a twinkle of an eye fills their treasures.
In essence, business is optimum use of time. Yet how many of us despite constraints of time, come straight to the topic without dilly dallying or straying into an alien territory to discuss the varying moods of the season, little realising that hard pressed business people have hardly any time to spare.
For them a moment misspent is a jewel lost from the treasury of misspent time, as the saying goes. Those who know the real worth of time spend it gainfully. We have an example set by the richest man of his time, Nizam, the last ruler of the erstwhile Hyderabad State. He used to charge even for the little time spared by him for private audience.
The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost which is devoted to work. Yet how mankind defers from day to day, the best it can do, and the most beautiful things it can enjoy, without thinking that every day may be the last one and that lost time is lost eternity, laments Max Mueller.
Regrettably, those who make the worst use of their time complain most about its shortness. The other view is that we have much more time than we know what to do with. As a matter of fact, our lives are spent either in doing nothing at all or doing nothing to purpose or doing things we ought not to.
The majority shares the view of Bailey that we should count time by heartbeats and make the best of it. As the present holds in it the whole of the past and the whole of the future, each day as it comes and goes is so precious. A useless life, reminds Goethe, is only an early death. In order that time is husbanded well, one has to be extremely methodical. Mahatma Gandhi has stated that no man is expected to do more than he really can. At the end of the day, if there is surplus work left or he cannot go through it without missing a meal or encroaching upon the hours of sleep or recreation, there is mismanagement somewhere.
Pandit Nehru, the architect of modern India worked with a missionary zeal and kept working for long hours till late in the night taking brief rest in the wee hours. He gave the toiling humanity the only slogan “Aaram haram hai”. Once, he snubbed his delinquent subordinate ‘not only was I held up for want of information for half an hour, its late transmission has delayed work on all the projects. Thus you have delayed the entire nation by half an hour’.
A socialist at heart, Pandit Nehru introduced many labour reforms and brought in welfare schemes for the benefit of the workers and ensured their constitutional right to strike. At the same time, he managed to see that there was no let up or any hindrance in execution of developmental work. Reacting sharply once on a call of strike by the Railway Union chakka jaam, he gave a stern warning and a clear message ‘if the strike succeeds, the Government fails’. Consequently, the grand task master prevailed and the wheel of progress kept moving forward.
Grotesquely, the bold reform demonetisation initiated recently by our Government, the entire nation was kept on its toes for full 50 days. Yet, the picture is hazy, as the entire economy as per expert opinion is slowing down. Apart from that eyebrows are raised that the cash dependent sector has caused dip in GDP growth and resulted in job loss. Thus, the overall economy is in doldrums. Besides, the goal aimed cannot be easily realised, as to detect and destroy the black money is likely to escape the trap.
More importantly, as initially visualised that the black money was stashed in foreign banks has been conveniently ignored. Instead, the focus has shifted to the common people within the country.
If at all necessary, the ignorant and ill-informed majority deserved a gradual change process and elimination of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes could have been slower.
The woes of the ordinarily folks, who could not exchange notes for the genuine reasons has added to the dismal situation.
Cumulatively in a way the Government has seemingly, failed the people, yet miraculously the Government survives. Therefore, answerable for the colossal loss of man hours in long queues of the populous for exchange of banned notes, cannot be left out of reckoning while assessing the overall gain. Time is money.
madanlallmanchanda@gmail.com
