' Time' matters

Hello folks,
                      Time does matter for most of us or one and all. For Indian children, it is vacation time which will get over in a couple of weeks. For the rest of Indians in and out of the country, it is another week of waiting in anticipation before the counting starts on May 23th, which is going to rewrite the Indian political scene. For somebody in my family, who is fast slipping away due to aggressive form of cancer, every moment counts, which depresses rest of us and makes us realize the value of each moment.
                                                        Last week, I went to a watch repair shop to fix the broken glass frame of my watch. The problem did not get fixed and I was advised to go to the company's shop in another location. During my waiting time, I observed different kinds of watches below the glass case and various kinds of clocks which also included attractive pendulum clocks hung on the walls. While the wrist watches keep on evolving to suit the trendy current generation of both men and women, the wall clocks with pendulums were the main time keepers of a household some decades back. When my dad talks about his childhood days which he spent in a joint family in Pandalam of Kerala, he tells that as there was no wall clock in his ancestral home, he and his cousins used to calculate the time by observing the movement of the shadow from the sunlight! Can we imagine anything like that these days? During my early childhood days, we had an affluent family in our neighbourhood who had an ornamental wall clock which I still remember very much if not minute details. The main head of the clock was round or hexagonal. The numbers were in roman. The frame was sleek and had the shine of teak wood. During the hourly chime, it is preceded by music which we could hear from our home very clearly. It was supposed to have been from Malaysia or Singapore. Ah, now that I am recollecting the details of that clock, I remember that we did not have any wall clock in our old home. What we had was a timepiece or a table clock. Now that I am talking about wall clocks, centuries back, clock towers were built all over the world making them the landmarks in the localities and now famous tourist attractions. Those were the days when there were no clocks or watches to check time and so, clock towers used to serve the purpose. The most famous of them is Big Ben in London. But why go to London to see Big Ben when we have a more attractive and a unique clock tower in front of East entrance of Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum! The clock was built around 1840s and it is known as 'Methan Mani' clock. Its unique feature is that there is a bearded man on the top of the dial and two rams on his sides. When the clock chimes every hour, the man opens his mouth but the two rams hit his face forcing him to close his mouth. When the population was less and vehicles were sparse more than 100 years back, the chimes could be heard by one and all living in that locality. It still works perfectly and is managed by CDIT company. Click on the link below to watch the video of chiming of this clock in Youtube.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuPsL9PWRgU


                                      
                                          The Methan Mani clock in front of east entrance of Padmanabha swamy temple.      

                                    Rest of our neighbours had big clocks with dials mostly round in shape with white background and bold numbers. Of course, they were not attractive to me like the pendulum sing-song clock I described earlier. Then as times changed, the pendulum clocks gave way to more silent clocks sans pendulum. The sizes reduced, and more ornamental ones were seen in the shops. It became one of the ideal gifts to be presented in a housewarming ceremony of an Indian household. Like any antique items, the pendulum clocks also have made a comeback as people buy more for ornamental purpose. The wrist watches have become more fashionable and are worn like bracelets. The dial colours can be changed to match the color of your attire. I am a watch wearer and I like to have a variety of watches. Though my husband has branded and expensive watches, he no longer wears them. Many of the folks use phones to check time. But for now and for the 'time' being, the watches and clocks will not become extinct like telephones, inland letters, greeting cards, old types of cameras.
                                           I started writing this post during May and I paused in between as I had to travel which took my mind away from writing. I mentioned in the beginning that somebody in my family is fast 'slipping away' due to cancer. Unfortunately, he passed away a couple of days later and every microsecond did count for him. The uncertainty in the Indian political scene is over with Modi leading his second term. One month has passed and I am procrastinating to get my watch repaired. Time does matter for everybody in one way or other until his/hers last breath.

Deepa.