14-07-2025
Lack of punctuality, traffic jams, and related problems are draining your energy, says this book
Indians have a very complicated relationship with time. We are rarely on it. Be it the slumbering small towns of rural India or the bustling metropolis of Mumbai or Delhi, we always complain of having no time to explain our perpetual lateness. A casual attitude towards time seems to be deeply ingrained in our culture. Remember, all our home clocks used to be some minutes ahead on purpose. We have grown up always discounting five to ten minutes of whatever the clock is showing. One might even say we take comfort in mentally calculating the correct time by making clock adjustments rather than knowing the exact time. The clock shows 8 am, so don't worry; there are still five minutes, as the clock is ahead. It gives us a false sense of having more time.
As a culture, we are more collectivist than individualist. For us, the group is always bigger than the individual. Community and family take precedence over an individual. When coordinating large numbers of people in the community, with their different priorities, rigidity with timelines doesn't work. Deadlines must be flexible, and adjusting to other people's time must be allowed. One may even say that Indian time is event-oriented and not necessarily clock-oriented. We are more focused on ensuring the event for which time has been blocked takes place smoothly rather than fussing too much about whether it began or ended at the predetermined time. We don't like the certainty and finality that being on time and matching the rhythms to a clock gives, preferring to let things happen at their own pace. Adjusting expectations to a super consciousness of an abstract time horizon gives a broader error margin than a ruthless clock.
For us, being fashionably late to events is considered normal, even expected. If you arrive at the party venue at the time mentioned on the invite, you might find people roaming around in their pajamas, preparing for the party that will actually start at least an hour later. If we want guests to arrive at 8 pm, our invite will say 7 pm, knowing the first guest will come only after 7.30 or 8. This wide margin of error won't be possible if our society starts sticking to being punctual. It will take away the notional extra 30 to 60 minutes from organisers and the invitees, a loss we just cannot accept. This loss aversion of the notional extra time to do things drives all our behaviours.
In his seminal book Four Thousand Weeks, Daniel Burkeman says that time, unlike money, is a network good. He means that time has value only as a shared resource of the people within a network. One person coming on time won't make any difference to society's rhythms because everyone else is not following the same one.
Life in the cities adds multiple complications to this already strained relationship. Millions of people need to travel long distances every day from their homes to offices and back. A study by the Asian Development Bank on Mumbai's suburban rail network highlighted some interesting data. Every day, 7.5 million passengers travel on Mumbai's 400-kilometre-long suburban railway network. Everyone is always in a mad rush. People who travel by road in cars or buses have it even worse. People in Mumbai can finish watching the entire series of Friends and Modern Family combined for the time they are stuck in traffic on average in a year. People in Bangalore have it far worse. Bangalore traffic jams are so hurtful that, as per a report from Business Today, the city loses $25 billion in GDP just because people are stuck on the roads listening to RJs going on about traffic problems. With this long and arduous commute, the quality of life in cities is taking a definite nosedive. The number of hours in a day starts counting for less, and everyone feels that they are constantly running with no end in sight. This daily routine leads to an overall decrease in Bright Energy and a corresponding increase in Dark Energy in our lives.
Add to this the work norms in Indian offices. We strongly subscribe to the old-school idea of 'seeing is believing' – if a person stays longer in office, they must be working harder. Long work hours are equated with sincerity, ownership and drive. They are celebrated, rewarded and expected. We love to use sarcasm, and I believe every single one of us, at some time or the other in our careers, would have heard a colleague or manager shout, 'Half-day today!' when attempting to leave the office at 6 in the evening. These cultural norms force people to sit longer and longer hours in the office, not necessarily being productive.
Another typical scene at the office is people being late to the meetings. It is almost a given that any meeting, however early you plan it, will begin later than the scheduled time because someone will come late. Most of the time, people don't even apologise, as a five- to ten-minute delay is routine. We are always expected to 'adjust, please'. This 'chalta hai', casual approach towards the clock is so deeply ingrained in us that we don't even stop to think if this is disrespectful to those who come on time. Since no disrespect is perceived, no apology is sought, and there are no negative consequences. In fact, people who arrive on time experience the punishment as they have to wait for everyone to join. This social reward of negative behaviour and punishment for positive behaviour drives a mass shift towards the former. Why should people come on time and be punished, to wait, while others join late? A better idea would be to join five minutes later. This routine is how the super-conscious clock of Indian society is ticking. Be late, because others will definitely be.
A typical day in city life starts early at 7 am, and if you have kids, maybe even earlier at 5.30–6 am, and ends by 8 or even 9 pm before a person gets time to retire and relax at home. Where can one find time in this personification of hustle-bustle? The commute saps energy, and long, unproductive work hours leave employees crying for the ever-elusive work–life balance. It is important to understand and reflect on these cultural expectations and harsh realities of Indian city life.
With such a cultural context, making any change to our lives and reclaiming more time for ourselves seems like a tall task. But that is where the opportunity lies. Even if we make some incremental changes in our work day, manage our habits and, more importantly, our Bright Energy, we can shine at the workplace. I won't be able to help you influence the rest of your teammates or your manager to start valuing your time, but with the experiments we will discuss ahead, you might be able to derive more out of the time you get.
