Time &(is) Money
Today has been quite wonderful, though I have not really done anything productive. I got up pretty late in the morning emphasizing to myself that today I will be heading home for a brilliant four day vacation. Throughout the day I kept telling myself that its all right, I should resume all work once I come back from my deepavali trip home. The day went by and it was time to head to the station.
All was well and two hours before the scheduled departure time of the train, I left my room. The institute battery operated bus was right there on time and I reached the main gate in no time with Prasanna who had joined me at GC. Once there, the search for an autorickshaw began. The first auto rickshaw driver we encountered demanded a sum of Rs 180/- for the ride to the station. It appeared outrageous to us, and we did not even bother arguing and bargaining with him. Like hunks trying to prove their studness, both of us walked away from those autos standing at the main gate and looked forward to the autos on the road.
Five minutes went by, no sign of an auto. Then we saw the first auto from far and were really hopeful about the whole thing. The moment it was fifty metres from us, we noticed that it was already engaged. 'Ah! we will get one soon' was the thought we wanted to bring in our minds.
Another ten minutes went by and our patience was running out. By now, a bunch of juniors who had reached the main gate almost the same time as us had already walked away in the direction of the station hoping to get an auto on their way forward. This irritated us even more, as we did not know which was a better decision, ours or theirs. No success for another ten minutes did not really help the situation. Just before we were about to give up and do something ridiculous, an auto stopped by.
The moment the driver said, 'Yes sir!' when asked 'Sir station?', there was a huge relief and I was in no mood to let this relief leave me. It has been quite some time that I have gone home for a respectable stay. The last time I went home, I met my parents for a span of an hour en route to Malaysia for the Gourami Business Challenge. Now that a lot of things have come my way in the last one month, and I have had no time to share my experiences with people back home, I was in no mood to miss my train. I had to reach home at any cost.
I asked, 'Yevlo sir?'. In English, that would translate to, 'How much sir?' and snap came the reply, '180 kudungaa sir'. My eyebrows flickered for a moment, but then before I could say anything, he continued speaking and said, 'Sir, it takes a lot of time to reach the station in this traffic'. Before any further talk, we had tacitly agreed on the amount and were on our way to the station.
All the way to the station I kept thinking that now, no more is the fare based on the distance. It is based on time. Or thats what it effectively translates to. In a broad sense I might have realized in life that time is money, but today was different. I could in fact relate to the very specific nature of the statement that is a philosophy in itself. These are the first instances of transportation fares moving on time and not on distance I have witnessed in person. I am sure that such things are being seen across the world.
I think I should spend some time thinking about what would be the implications if every factor earned its revenues or benefits, in the broadest terms, based on the time it spent on the work.
Vague to some, but this realization has been profound to me.
PS: This post was composed on the night of 7th Nov, 2007.
@Vatsap : This was written on a train. :)
Update:
This is more of a thing that I had forgotten to mention. Thanks to Prasanna's comment, I was reminded. Basically, Prasanna and I had this strong realization that the driver was The Chosen One. We were speculating that I might end up missing the train as we were anticipating lot of traffic at the peak hour and our experience assured us that our speculation would be more or less true. It took the auto driver 25 minutes flat, in peak hour traffic, to take us to the railway station. He was The One. Period.
All was well and two hours before the scheduled departure time of the train, I left my room. The institute battery operated bus was right there on time and I reached the main gate in no time with Prasanna who had joined me at GC. Once there, the search for an autorickshaw began. The first auto rickshaw driver we encountered demanded a sum of Rs 180/- for the ride to the station. It appeared outrageous to us, and we did not even bother arguing and bargaining with him. Like hunks trying to prove their studness, both of us walked away from those autos standing at the main gate and looked forward to the autos on the road.
Five minutes went by, no sign of an auto. Then we saw the first auto from far and were really hopeful about the whole thing. The moment it was fifty metres from us, we noticed that it was already engaged. 'Ah! we will get one soon' was the thought we wanted to bring in our minds.
Another ten minutes went by and our patience was running out. By now, a bunch of juniors who had reached the main gate almost the same time as us had already walked away in the direction of the station hoping to get an auto on their way forward. This irritated us even more, as we did not know which was a better decision, ours or theirs. No success for another ten minutes did not really help the situation. Just before we were about to give up and do something ridiculous, an auto stopped by.
The moment the driver said, 'Yes sir!' when asked 'Sir station?', there was a huge relief and I was in no mood to let this relief leave me. It has been quite some time that I have gone home for a respectable stay. The last time I went home, I met my parents for a span of an hour en route to Malaysia for the Gourami Business Challenge. Now that a lot of things have come my way in the last one month, and I have had no time to share my experiences with people back home, I was in no mood to miss my train. I had to reach home at any cost.
I asked, 'Yevlo sir?'. In English, that would translate to, 'How much sir?' and snap came the reply, '180 kudungaa sir'. My eyebrows flickered for a moment, but then before I could say anything, he continued speaking and said, 'Sir, it takes a lot of time to reach the station in this traffic'. Before any further talk, we had tacitly agreed on the amount and were on our way to the station.
All the way to the station I kept thinking that now, no more is the fare based on the distance. It is based on time. Or thats what it effectively translates to. In a broad sense I might have realized in life that time is money, but today was different. I could in fact relate to the very specific nature of the statement that is a philosophy in itself. These are the first instances of transportation fares moving on time and not on distance I have witnessed in person. I am sure that such things are being seen across the world.
I think I should spend some time thinking about what would be the implications if every factor earned its revenues or benefits, in the broadest terms, based on the time it spent on the work.
Vague to some, but this realization has been profound to me.
PS: This post was composed on the night of 7th Nov, 2007.
@Vatsap : This was written on a train. :)
Update:
This is more of a thing that I had forgotten to mention. Thanks to Prasanna's comment, I was reminded. Basically, Prasanna and I had this strong realization that the driver was The Chosen One. We were speculating that I might end up missing the train as we were anticipating lot of traffic at the peak hour and our experience assured us that our speculation would be more or less true. It took the auto driver 25 minutes flat, in peak hour traffic, to take us to the railway station. He was The One. Period.
7 comments:
VINAY!!! i just heard summer of 69 and realised i miss you so much!! :)
Hmmm.. something to ponder about.
To some, time is more important than money. Not to me (yet!).
Full use of laptop and all :D Blogging in train makes you believe, albeit for a short while, that you traveling from Paris to London in Eurostar! :P
Dude, that auto driver was The One. I am absolutely sure of that. :D
:D
180 is too much even if it takes a whole day to get there. I am sure the auto guy drank for 100 bucks, gone home and given his wife 80 + a few slaps and beatings!
I removed the earlier post. Guess why.
@czar
In this case, the auto driver was actually demanding more because it would take more time to reach the destination! Thats freaking crazy. we generally pay more to get to a place faster. Not to get there late!
But I see that the auto driver was thinking about the fare lost during the time spent in traffic.
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