What can a person probably do in just 5 minutes? Surprisingly, I get a feel that everything!! At least that's what they seem to "say". Call a person with whom you have a meeting which was supposed to have started by now and s/he will say "will reach in just 5 minutes" even if person is probably going to take more than half an hour to reach you. Go to any restaurant and ask how much time it will take to get that dish and you get "bass 5 minutes sir". Look around you and you will get a feel what I am talking about.
Recently I went to Delhi for some work and I called a friend who was in Gurgaon and asked to meet up. He asked where I was and told me that the place is very near to his house and he would be picking me up from that place in 10 minutes!!! I was ready and reached the place in 10 minutes. Now 10 minutes became 15, 20 , 25 minutes and he didn't show up. I didn't call thinking he might be driving and got stuck in traffic. Then I received a call and he said he was just starting now!!!!!! Ok, I get the point that you cannot predict everything but reaching in 10 minutes to starting itself in 30 minutes doesn't seem to be right from any perspective.
This kind of confuses me. If you have an appointment with somebody, how much extra time you should consider when you are asked for this kind of 5 minutes and how do we know if this is "that 5 minutes" or a genuine one. After all there are people whose 5 minutes are exactly 300 seconds measured by crystal clocks. I always wonder. A very good friend of mine told that his Baraat procession would start by 8.00 PM. I would have reached there by that time and probably be staring at empty hall and chairs had my other friend not told that 8.00 PM means at least 9:00PM... Even after keeping that much margin we were early and it actually started at around 10:15PM!!!
I never understood why we cannot keep a tab on time. I'm sure we can know in how much we are going to leave for something or approximately how much time we are going to lose in traffic jams. After all it's daily business and we can give times taking care of all this extra factors.. Or is it that we get some pleasure in making people wait. As some idiots say "bade log to late hi jaate hain... jisko wait karna hai karenge..." but I feel it's not just that rich and powerful who make people wait. Others do it too. So what is it that makes this a habit in this part of the world? Do we take everything easily and slowly and we enjoy every moment and lose track of time??? This also doesn't seem to hold good when I look at the traffic signals, honking and fighting for every inch of ground at the signal so that you can be the first to go through it. Look at the long queue when you land at the airport. The travelator is not put yet but more than 90% people are standing impatiently looking at their phone, calling frantically someone, looking busy like hell. So if we look always busy, why can't we keep the promised time? Do we not care for other's time? There may be some but not all. So probably we say just 5 minutes so that the other person is happy thinking the wait is only 5 minutes!! Is promising 5 minutes and not keeping that any better than saying plain simple truth? I don't believe so. I feel it's more irritating that simply hearing 30 minutes and then showing up in 30 minutes. Hope others too will start liking this idea and we don't have to guess how much time is actually a "5 minutes" of time...
