I moved in time and I didnt know it!

The prerequisite for reading this post is that you should be aware of the crazy policy of daylight saving time that is followed in most parts of the northern western world. I had first experienced it and actually learnt what it meant on the last sunday of the October gone by. It was the day when we had 2am twice :D. That was the day when our timezone got back to GMT from BST (which is GMT+1). And I knew that we would get back to BST i.e lose an hour on the last sunday of march i.e today. But I somehow crazily assumed that it would be on the night of sunday (that is 1am of monday) rather than the early morning of sunday.
So, now that you have been provided with the background, lets get down to the story :D.

It was around 12:30am on 25th mar'07 (late saturday night, early sunday, whatever). We were at a pub with some nice music going on. I prod my friend to go ask the DJ (who seemed to be resting his ears, having taken off his headphones) at what time the pub would be closed. I watch the conversation that goes on between them and notice that the DJ signals both 1 and 2. My friend comes back shaking his head and says, "the DJ said it would close at 1 i.e 2 or something like that". We concluded that maybe the bar would be closed at 1 and that we will be kicked out at 2. Anyway, we left the place at 5 minutes to 1 and started walking back.

We reached my room and noticed that the time on the computer was 2:30. I was flabbergasted. The walk was supposed to take half an hour. It felt so too. But somehow strangely, we apparently walked for 90 mins. Anyway, at that time we were in no position to deliberate on this matter further.

I wake up in the morning and start chatting with my friend Gyan. Soon, he says that his lunch was served and goes away. I notice that the time then on the computer was 9:30am. That would mean that back in India it would have to be +5:30 hrs i.e 3pm, a little late for lunch. But, anything is possible with Gyan, so I ignore it. Then, I go back to sleep again.

The phone rings and wakes me up. After the conversation, I check the time on the small ancient analog battery clock on the table beside the phone and see that the time it displayed was 9:35. I couldnt have slept for just 5 minutes. I felt like I had a restless sleep of much longer duration and I recollected even having a couple of dreams. It couldnt possibly have been in 5 minutes. Intuitively, I check the time in my cellphone. It displayed 10:35. So either my dear clock had slowed down considerably or we have jumped ahead in time and I didnt know it. So, I rush to the pc (which also displayed 10:35 by the way) and check when exactly we would have saved daylight. And realised that it was 1am on the sunday morning. Yeah, while we were walking back. We started before 1 and reached at 2:30, though we had walked for only half an hour :D. And then everything else fell into place. Why the DJ was so confused whether the pub closed at 1 or 2, why Gyan was having lunch so late etc.

The conclusion? Having smart devices like a computer and cellphone which take care of such weird happenings like Daylight Savings automatically sometimes renders us oblivious to some of the joys in life like jumping ahead in time. Thanks to my small antiquish table clock. Otherwise, for anytime soon, I wouldnt have realised that I had missed an hour! I even wonder that some people in these parts of the world who do not have interactions with people from other time zones may not even realise this event most of the time. They may fall back an hour in their sleep and they may jump ahead an hour. But they may not notice that. :)

Trivia: This post was written to prove to the sage that I wasnt in a dreamy state and that I was making coherent sense :D.

A morning verse, written at midnight

Fluttering curtain, an open window
a cold glimpse of the grey sky
breeze, valiant against the bricks
leaves, clinging on to the twigs
early light, dispelling the night.

sleepy eyes, a restless mind
a look at the dry itinerary ahead
work, jostling amongst the meetings
pleasure, finding not its bearings
long day, life rushing on its way.

good? bad? or ugly??

I have been deceived. I knew it was coming. At that time, I had promised myself that if I was indeed being taken for a ride, I would get back strongly, be angry, lash out etc. But now, that I am facing the situation, I dont feel an iota of any emotion. I am not angry, not disappointed, not sad, not even annoyed, though I have every right and reason to be. I seem to be as placid and nonchalant as ever.

Now, what I wonder is, whether being so stoic is a good or a bad thing?? Well, the whole issue is surely ugly :D.

I was about to post ...

1. Felt like blogging.
2. Logged into blogger.
3. Clicked on NewPost.
4. Staring at the textbox, realised that I no longer felt like it.
5. Typed out these points.
6. Will be publishing and signing out.

" All I want is everything?? "

"Hari! take up your usual position", shouted the trainer. Hari grudgingly walked up to his position, a few yards in front of his goal. These days, when he hears these words, he is reminded of the cruel fact that just an year ago, his usual position used to be somewhere near the opponent goal. When he had first joined the school last year, he was quickly elevated to the star striker status. True, it was just a primary school football team comprising of 11-10 year olds. But each member of the team took the whole issue very seriously. In fact, the whole school took their football team very seriously. It was one of the few good things that they could boast of. He was unanimously considered the best player last year. When exactly did things take a turn for the worse, he couldn't figure out now. From being the captain and the primary striker of the team, he was now fighting for his place in the team, that too for the position of a 'lowly' defender as he considered it.

"It is so unfair", he kept repeating to himself as he was waiting for the practice match to start. He had often complained about the unfairness of it all to his father in the last few months. He recollected his father's words. "There is no concept of fairness in life, my boy. So what if you aren’t doing as well in football now? You are still the top ranker in your class, you are still the best speaker among your classmates, you are still the best badminton kid in the colony, you are still the best dancer in the school!! And yeah, you are still the most popular kid that I know". His father had said that last sentence with a wink referring to the numerous girls of his class who kept frequenting his house on one reason or another. His father's reply had succeeded in making him smile then, but did not diminish his fervour to do well in football. It wasn’t sufficient for him that he was the best in some. He wanted to be the best in all of them.

He looked up at the orange sun. He had been playing football every evening, for the whole of past few months, but hasn’t been able to improve. He quietly resolved that he would succeed today. Today's practice match was quite important as at the end of it, the coach would choose the school team for a major match next week which they would be playing against their 'arch-rivals', the school adjacent to theirs. Hari resolved, that not only would he defend well as he is expected to, he would also score a goal.

The twilight was fading quickly. 5 minutes left for full-time, Hari was growing desperate by the second. His team was down 2-0. He knew that all his team members would be blaming him for letting in both the goals. While the first one could be attributed to an unfortunate stroke of luck, he couldn’t ward off blame for the second goal. He had practically gifted away the ball to the goal scorer. Hari realised that the only way to salvage his position in the school team would be to score a goal now. A goal in the dying moments always does wonders to the reputation of the goal scorer. The players of the other team were making many inroads into their penalty area while his team members were defending desperately. Hari notices that the player running towards him with the ball is Balu. He remembers that this guy was first enlisted in the team when Hari was the captain, as a substitute incase Hari gets injured. Now, while Balu is assured of the center forward position, Hari is being forced to compete for a defender position. Angered by this thought, Hari rushes towards Balu, tackles him efficiently without a foul and dribbles the ball in the other direction. Pleased with his effort, Hari now looks in front of him, concentrating on the task ahead. He would have to score a goal now. He is at the middle of the ground now. The forwards of his team are waiting expectantly for a pass. But, Hari puts his head down and continues dribbling his way forward. "I have to score the goal myself", he tells himself. Suddenly, something strikes him and before he knows it, he is lying on the ground, with the ball nowhere to be seen. He looks back just in time to see the ball enter hit the back of the net. His team had conceded yet another goal. He is being glared at by every player of his team. He could even hear some sniggers. Soon, the final whistle is blown.

Hari doesn’t wait to listen to the coach's verdict. He already knows that he is out. He packs his bag and starts walking back to his home. He concludes that he couldn’t possibly feel any worse than he did now. He reaches home, dumps his bag in a corner of his room and falls on the bed with his dirty clothes on, ignoring the shouts of his mother. He turns to look at his shelf full of trophies, many of them products of his previously excellent dribbling skills. He turns away and smiles. Sadly at first, the smile slowly grows larger and brighter. Suddenly, he gets up and stretches his body and jogs his way to the kitchen. He is very pleased with himself now. He had just realized that he no longer cared. He no longer cared about football. Munching on the hot bhajjis and just having a weight cleared of his mind, he looked forward to the daily evening violin lessons that he would be joining tomorrow.

Trivia:
1. This is the 200th post on this blog ... whew!!
2. Why is the protagonist's name Hari?
Ans. When I was in primary school, and we used to have to create sentences (as in 'He is a good boy'), everyone generally used 'Rama' as the default proper noun while I used to use 'Hari' ... for obvious reasons :D.
3. Does this story have a moral or something?
Ans. eh?? /:)
4. Any copyrights?
Ans. All copyrights are held by the author i.e me, mythalez. Producing parts or whole of this work in any form is prohibited without the prior permission of the author.
5. Why in the hell, did you write this?
Ans. Was bored, tired and had nothing better to do. So thought, I would type out a story. It turned out to be this one.

Any either way

There is a threshold, metaphorically a border. It is tough to cross, but not impossible. However, there also is a restoring force which is pretty strong. Although, many attempts are made to cross the threshold with some even being successful, the restoring force acts quickly and strongly enough to get it back to the normal state. The default stable state.

Rarely but surely, there come occasions, when an incursion beyond the threshold is too deep for the restoring force. In such cases, the restoring force may make some feeble attempts to negate the effects of the incursion, but quickly recognizes the high improbability of success and gives up. The vestige of the incursion, a deep glaring gash acts as a constant reminder of that unfortunate incident. Such deep incursions would permanently change the configuration. The older state is no longer viable. A new stable state has to be found and is gradually found after a few fluctuations. And life goes on....