Punching Punctuality

Last summer was a kind of different in comparison with those earlier summer seasons that has passed by till then. It was the time, when most of us had to separate out, coming out from college life and starting a new life in the corporate world. So most of us had this emotional pull and we wanted to make this summer, a remarkable one. What better than a trip to a hill station in the burning summer heat, was the obvious point of discussion amongst us?

I initially thought this was going to be impossible, considering our gang’s attitude. One evening of a weekend, we met and had a discussion on our trip. Surprisingly all of us agreed unanimously to go to Panchgani, for the next weekend. Everyone was excited about this. I can never pen down those feelings we had then.

Panchgani was about 8 hrs of journey from our city. The frequency of busses was about once every 30mins, after 10 pm. So, we booked five tickets for Aravind, Mark, Pranav, Raj and me, at 10pm on Friday.

Finally the most awaited Friday came and complete day was spent in buying stuffs for travel and planning. I and Aravind reached the bus terminal by 9:30pm and Mark followed us at 9:45pm. We were trying to figure out why Pranav and Raj late for the journey. Waiting for these two guys, we realized we couldn’t make it to the 10:00pm bus and postponed our reservation to 10:30pm bus, at some extra cost. Aravind was extremely disappointed and was considering of canceling the trip. At around 10:20pm Pranav and Raj were seen at the bus terminal. Aravind and Mark were very upset with Pranav and Raj. Even I wasn’t pleased by their behavior, but wasn’t so upset as Aravind and Mark.

The bus started to Panchgni at 10:35pm and we started to question Pranav and Raj for their delay. Raj started making up some stories, which we dint accept, but Pranav was honest and accepted that they were careless. By now it was about 30mins of travel and I and Mark were ready to forgive them for making late to the journey. I was particularly convinced by Raj’s question. “What will we loose if we reach Panchgani some half hour late? Or what will we gain by being on time? Now at least we should not be bound by time.” But still it was tough to convince Aravind. I thought he was being unreasonably strict. It was about 2:30am, when we slept. The next scene that I remembered was the bus terminal of Panchgani, by 7:00am.

We freshened up by 11:00am and we left to the local Nisarga water falls. It was around 30mins drive from our hotel. The tempo which we boarded dropped us at a point and the driver instructed us to take up a narrow lane to the location of water falls. He also told us that there would be few native people who guide us to the exact location of the water falls. In return we needed to pay some little money.

As per the driver’s instructions we walked through the narrow lane for about five minutes. We heard the sound of water falls, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. We saw an old naïve person, whom we thought would guide us to the falls. We spoke to him and he agreed to guide us. The amount to which he agreed was surprisingly low. After we walked a few steps towards the water falls, he asked us for the exact time. Aravind replied, “It is exactly 11:51” The man replied, “Sir, I can accompany you people only after 12:40pm. I have some important work until then” We were taken by surprise by his gesture. But we dint have any option, other than agreeing to his words. We thought this was the best time for us to pull Aravind’s leg. So we started comparing Aravind’s punctuality with that naïve person’s behavior and making fun of our dear friend.

How ever Aravind took things lightly and suggested that instead of waiting in the midst of road why not follow the old man. We all nodded our heads and followed him. He walked for about 10mins and following him we also reached a charitable home, known as Deen Dayal Charitable Trust. We saw many people, who appeared to be very poor, waiting in a queue. We were able to figure out the reason behind such a long queue. At exactly 12:15pm, we saw food being served. By 12:25pm, the representatives of the trust stopped serving the food. Nearly 50% of the crowed returned empty handed, but our guide got lucky. We all discussed our guide’s fortune, until he returned and continued our adventurous walk towards the water falls.

On the way we asked him, why the others we deprived of the food. He said, “Sir, the trust has one rule. Only first 25 members in the queue will get the food. One has to be sharp on time to earn his/her meal. I’m very poor. If I go late, I may not get my one time meal. I have to very punctual to earn it. Other wise I may have to starve the entire day. Once I asked the representatives of the trust, why they didn’t serve meal to each and every person at their door step? They told me that they wanted to make people understand the value of each meal they have. Even though we don’t pay any money, we give them the exact time, which perhaps is more than mere currency”

At that point of time I realized how correct Aravind’s behavior was. Pranav and Raj were ashamed by their respective behavior for last night. I asked Aravind, “Now I realize the importance of punctuality. How come you have that ability of being punctual without any experience as this?” He replied, “I have met this person some time before in some other form. Keep in mind one thing, not all of us are blessed with good fortune. That doesn’t mean we should cultivate wrong habits. Practicing correct habits has no restriction”

I honestly do not remember the later part of the trip. But certainly remember those strong and correct words from my dear friend. Most of us became very punctual following that incident. This summer, I miss those lovely moments, but I can always relive them practicing punctuality.