Time Is Not
Have you ever looked at an airplane flying in the sky? It appears to move very slowly across the sky, but when you look at the same plane taking off from a runway near you, it appears to be moving incredibly fast.
Time, on the other hand, behaves differently. Look closely and you will find that time appears to move slowly, but look at it from a distance, and it appears to have moved very fast.
Like a herd of elephants, they appear to move slowly but cover great distances.
It’s about perspectives.
As a parent, when you look at a day with your child, the day appears long and the days seem to be plenty, but when you sit back and recollect, you realize how fast the time has gone by, and it feels just like yesterday when the child was born and now they are ready to leave home!
Time doesn’t change its speed, only perspectives make it appear to move fast or slow.
But one thing is for sure, time is not infinite. Even the universe is on rationed time. So don’t do time management, just live it!
We often ignore time silently ticking away beside us, waiting for that big thing to happen, without realizing that the moments that are going by could have been lived more, for those moments are never going to come back.
We raise children, trying to make them good and successful human beings. We wait for their exam results, prepare them to get into good universities and pray for them to land a good job.
But we are always waiting, eagerly and desperately, sometimes even wanting time to pass quickly between two achievements.
What we miss is the realization that in the journey towards constantly trying to achieve something, we have completely ignored the precious moments of time that were given to us. We never valued them, and they are never going to come back.
Ask an old man, he would give anything to live just one day again of his prime youth. But when he was young, those days appeared to be in plenty, and he was waiting for other things to happen without realizing that this youth was silently chugging out of the station of life.
We often hear phrases like “time and tide wait for none,” “learn to respect time,” “manage your time responsibly” etc. Ultimately, what matters is what will matter from a distant perspective. At the end of your life, will you regret having let go of life’s precious moments waiting for something, or will you feel the satisfying warmth of having lived every moment of your life?
Choice is yours.
Vineet Gupta is the Founder and Managing Editor of PuneNow, where he leads editorial coverage on Pune’s civic developments, local infrastructure, traffic, and urban governance. With an academic background from the University of Wales and professional experience across journalism, hospitality, finance, and academia, Vineet brings a unique perspective to hyper-local journalism. Based in Pune, he is passionate about empowering residents with accurate, timely news that affects their daily lives, while also offering insightful commentary on mindful living, parenting, and community connection.
