NO TIME EVEN TO BREATHE... REALLY?

In last one week, I heard two persons telling me this: “I am very busy… No time even to breathe!”

And, I can tell them, whether they love me or hate me for saying this: It is a big, fat lie!

There is enough time in hand with each one of us to do what we like to do… what we love to do. We do not have time to do those things which we do not like to do… do not love to do.

The first person, a financial adviser, had a small transaction to be done with me on his computer, which would have taken him not even 10 minutes. His profession demands him to be on computer all day long… He is extremely net-savvy and I see him very active on social media… Still, when it came to this one simple task, he cited illness of one of his relatives and finally made that dramatic statement: “I am very busy… No time even to breathe!”

The second person, a lady teacher, is exceptionally active on so many things, including social media… forwarding a hundred stupid things every day. A week ago, she needed some help from me and assured me that she would call me one late evening. When phone call did not come, I made a call, which she did not attend…  Following this, I sent a message. The next day, I received this reply on WhatsApp:

Sorry sir, I was unable to call you yesterday... Actually I had slipped and fallen in school on 13th February and after two weeks, my left shoulder started hurting me. The doctor gave me some pain-killers but the pain persisted. Friday night and Saturday, the whole day, I had severe pain… so, my husband took me in the night around 11p.m. for an X-ray. It showed a small gap in my left shoulder. Again, yesterday, the whole day, I was in pain... and I was also having tuitions ... Sir, because of the exams, I could not give my students a holiday. So, I was unable to call you yesterday. Thought of calling you when I got free, but it was 9 p.m.  So, I did not want to bother you at that time. I will catch up with you later, sir... March and April are  verrrry busy months... There are school exams... My kids ka exam... Tuition ka bachhas ka exams... Paper corrections… There is actually no time even to breathe!!!  I will call you soon, sir... I really want to talk to you… Bye for now.

                       

I laughed and wrote back: “In short, ‘Sir, I will call you  later’."

It is a week now… the teacher’s call hasn’t come!

Each one of has been handed with twenty-four hours a day. That seems to be a good-enough reason why we should not blame God for our fate… With respect of time, He has created all of us as equals… As they say, even the worst day comes with twenty-four hours. I keep reminding the young-ones in my class-room: “Not a nano-second more, not a nano-second less… We all have to do it in our twenty-four-hour package only!”

In the afternoon, today, a young boy was brought to me by his parents. “Sir, he loves to play cricket and was after us to enroll him for a training camp. We have just done that.  But, he is a lot lazy… We need to always ‘coax him and force him’ to make him get up early and do things. His coaching will start early every morning, and we are anxious if he will get up from his bed.”

I looked at the young-man with a look, “So, you want to be a Tendulkar or Dhoni, don’t you?”

“If he wants to excel in cricket, he will get up on his own,” I told his parents, “Else, he will sleep till mid-noon!”

We all know, that, if we do not breathe, we will die. So, it is a stupid lie when we say, “I have no time even to breathe.”

Let’s accept it: We have no solid dreams… and we have no strong will... Our values and priorities are not in place… and, we have time not only to breathe but also to waste it on a hundred stupid things…

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Azriel D'Souza