Peru has decided that it is now going to get punctual. I had had the impression that it was only India that was infamous for showing disrespect to time. But I read this, and went through some latest news bulletins, and came to know that we Indians are far better than Peruvians in this regard. A lot begins on time in India these days. Many people do procrastinate in their personal lives but at a professional level, things are improving slowly and steadily. We are far more professional now and respect ours and others' time. There are reasons for this, of course - increasing competetion, pressure to grow, corporate culture, mature young population...
There is a hora peruana, or "Peruvian time", which usually means an hour late. It is very similar to the meaning we "normally" assign to "Indian Standard Time" a.k.a IST. I guess there are many in India who don't really know what IST actually stands for. I heard when I was small that most Bollywood actors in those days (1980's and 1990's) were never on time for shooting on the sets. The South Indian Film Industry was far more professional and all their stars used to come on time. Jitendra, my mom once told me, was an exception. She had read it in Swati, a telugu weekly Saparivaar Patrika. He always reached the sets on time. I wonder whether that was because most of the films he did those days were with South Indian Actresses, were for South Indian film-makers and were remakes of South Indian movies. He couldn't afford to be late when everyone else was on time. This is one reason why things refuse to change in Peru. People are late coz everyone is late. I mean, I won't go to a place on time when I know that everyone else is going to come an hour late; even if I am usually very punctual, or even if I really want to be punctual. It's a vicious circle. India is slowly coming out of it, thanks to the conducive circumstances. It's a slow process, however.
Laziness, Procrastination, etc. are natural to human beings. Sometimes people have genuine reasons for being late. Like for 2 years, during my 11th and 12th standard, I used to deliberately reach my school very late. The reason - I hated standing in my class's line in Sun during the assembly for the National Anthem. No problems with singing the National Anthem. It was just that standing in the sun exposed all my newly formed bald patches, and I hated that. So to avoid it, I used to go late. Sometimes standing in lines was unavoidable. In those situations, I used to stand at the very end of the line. Though I was not tall enough to deserve that place and we were arranged in increasing order of height, I used to fight for it, and manage it on most occasions. It was creepy to have someone taller behind you looking at your head. And what if he sees everything and then goes and tells all others what he saw? And some adjacent lines used to be longer, as they had more people in their classes. Couldn't do anything about those :-(. Anyway, coming back, no one had problems even if I went late. So I did that until I passed out. I'd say, when going late is a strategic decision, like mine in 11th and 12th, it is understandable :D
The problem is very deep-rooted, both in India and in Peru. For example, in Peru, it is even considered rude to be punctual for parties. So in a way, people have started respecting late-comers and are disdainful of punctuality and punctual people. It's become like a religious teaching - you tell a follower of that religion that the teaching is wrong and crap, and you'll only infuriate him, although any rational individual can easily discern right from wrong; but most people are not rational. Some can even become terrorists and kill people, but will never understand something that is pretty obvious. Look at the dowry system in India. Will it ever stop completely?
Now the Peruvian Government rings bells and alarms and asks its people to synchronize their clocks to remind them that they have to be on time. I appreciate the initiative of such a big scale. It would be interesting to see how much it changes the attitudes of the Peruvian people who believe that being not-punctual is right and so are not at all sorry to whoever has problems with it. Peru is a democracy. So for such measures to be effective it is essential to make people realize that there's something wrong with being late. The Peruvian government seems to be ringing all its bells pretty loud. Let's see for how long it echoes.
There is a hora peruana, or "Peruvian time", which usually means an hour late. It is very similar to the meaning we "normally" assign to "Indian Standard Time" a.k.a IST. I guess there are many in India who don't really know what IST actually stands for. I heard when I was small that most Bollywood actors in those days (1980's and 1990's) were never on time for shooting on the sets. The South Indian Film Industry was far more professional and all their stars used to come on time. Jitendra, my mom once told me, was an exception. She had read it in Swati, a telugu weekly Saparivaar Patrika. He always reached the sets on time. I wonder whether that was because most of the films he did those days were with South Indian Actresses, were for South Indian film-makers and were remakes of South Indian movies. He couldn't afford to be late when everyone else was on time. This is one reason why things refuse to change in Peru. People are late coz everyone is late. I mean, I won't go to a place on time when I know that everyone else is going to come an hour late; even if I am usually very punctual, or even if I really want to be punctual. It's a vicious circle. India is slowly coming out of it, thanks to the conducive circumstances. It's a slow process, however.
Laziness, Procrastination, etc. are natural to human beings. Sometimes people have genuine reasons for being late. Like for 2 years, during my 11th and 12th standard, I used to deliberately reach my school very late. The reason - I hated standing in my class's line in Sun during the assembly for the National Anthem. No problems with singing the National Anthem. It was just that standing in the sun exposed all my newly formed bald patches, and I hated that. So to avoid it, I used to go late. Sometimes standing in lines was unavoidable. In those situations, I used to stand at the very end of the line. Though I was not tall enough to deserve that place and we were arranged in increasing order of height, I used to fight for it, and manage it on most occasions. It was creepy to have someone taller behind you looking at your head. And what if he sees everything and then goes and tells all others what he saw? And some adjacent lines used to be longer, as they had more people in their classes. Couldn't do anything about those :-(. Anyway, coming back, no one had problems even if I went late. So I did that until I passed out. I'd say, when going late is a strategic decision, like mine in 11th and 12th, it is understandable :D
The problem is very deep-rooted, both in India and in Peru. For example, in Peru, it is even considered rude to be punctual for parties. So in a way, people have started respecting late-comers and are disdainful of punctuality and punctual people. It's become like a religious teaching - you tell a follower of that religion that the teaching is wrong and crap, and you'll only infuriate him, although any rational individual can easily discern right from wrong; but most people are not rational. Some can even become terrorists and kill people, but will never understand something that is pretty obvious. Look at the dowry system in India. Will it ever stop completely?
Now the Peruvian Government rings bells and alarms and asks its people to synchronize their clocks to remind them that they have to be on time. I appreciate the initiative of such a big scale. It would be interesting to see how much it changes the attitudes of the Peruvian people who believe that being not-punctual is right and so are not at all sorry to whoever has problems with it. Peru is a democracy. So for such measures to be effective it is essential to make people realize that there's something wrong with being late. The Peruvian government seems to be ringing all its bells pretty loud. Let's see for how long it echoes.
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