what time is it?

Have you ever thought that there are times when in a day, you encounter similar question again and again.

For me, it was "what time is it?".

It was a regular day at work. Nothing unusual. I parked my car in the parking lot and was waiting with a couple of other guys near the elevator. When suddenly, my co-worker Alan came near me.

"Hi JD. What time is it?" - Alan (breathing heavily).

This question can be answered in various ways. If this question was asked to Alice, she would have said, "Its a bad time." As she eyebrows her lashes from her makeup box kept on her work desk. She is known in office as the makeup girl. She looks cute and has a good looking body but I don't remember ever seeing her face without any makeup. If you would have asked Tammy the same question, she would have said, "Its 11:00 AM." She works as a secretary to my boss. Hence, if you ever want to know the real time, ask Tammy.

Coming back to me, I am not sure how to answer this question. Lets see, today I had a good breakfast. My bread was not burnt and my eggs turn out to be just the way I wanted. Until now, my time was good. On the road... my car didn't start. I had to spend 15 mins trying to warm the engine up. Due to which I got stuck in traffic on the interstate and came to office 10 mins late. Now, thats a bad time for me right now.

Time... is a mystery by itself. I read about this guy, Albert Einstein, who spend part of his life trying to prove time using science. I have heard about it that he even proved on paper, that one day we all would be living two lives in the same time. It means that while I am working my ass off in the office, I could also be playing golf or be on date my Patricia..... of course, its all still on papers. He also proved that most part of time is an illusion.

By the time I was done with my thoughts, the elevator was closing in to our floor. My eyes were fixed on the dial indicating the climb of elevator to our floor. There are times during which I wished, the elevator door to open and I find a hot looking chick in a fabulous dress all alone in the elevator. Looking at me as if she was just there waiting in the elevator for me.

Ding... comes the sound of the elevator door opening. Snapping me out of my memories; the elevator door opens slowly. My eyes, were glittering as if I am still under impression that the girl would be in there. Sadly, the door opened and all i could see is a bunch of guys wearing suits and a briefcase just like me. (As that science guy said, "Time is an illusion.")

I need not answer the question which Alan asked. For he is always "the hurry guy". He is late (or on time) for most of the things. Once, I heard that he was late for voting during elections. He was late for our office dinner party. Heeee was on timee for office movie night out. (Although, I am not so sure, since I was busy watching ..... Patricia)

While walking down the office corridor, same conversation kept hitting my ears.

"what time is it?" - Alan asked Tammy as soon as he sees her. He knows she is going to give "the clock answer".

"9:30 AM" - says Tammy, while going through her bunch of papers.

"9:30 AM. Oh boy, I am late." - I said to myself.

"Tammy, Do you know what time is it? It is the time of my life. We are going to get the project approved soon." - says Boss. I always call him the boss. His is MD. No, not Manging Director.. but MD as Michael Dwasson.

"What time is it? .... humm... ah ha .... I will be there to pick up the fishing gear." - that was the voice of Peter. He is happy today, since after a long time, he is going out with his family to a vacation. His cabin is next to the boss. He takes care of our finance. In other words, he gives us the money. So you should be in good terms with him, if you want to see your money in bank account on time. "Sure, I will be there on time."

"Oh no, This could not have been happening to me." - thats Tina. A young girl recently joining the company. "My car got totaled this morning and the insurance company says, they will examine the situation before my insurance gets claimed. What am I going to do all this time without my car. " - she said to Patricia, who was sitting next to her trying to console her.

"Hi James" - I said. James has been my best friend in the office. Our friendship goes all the way when we joined this company as interns. Back then, he was just a regular kid, like me. Slowly, we started sharing some good times, kicking enemies butt in games (not in office though). Our friendship grew with time. I was also his best man at the wedding.

"Yo, JD. Do you know what time is it?"

"yup, tell me about it." - I said, placing my briefcase in my cubicle and flipping the sand clock. The sand clock is a gift given to me by a friend of mine named Roger. He is more into science and stuff, so he gave me this clock which is set to work for exact 5 hours. I did not use this clock for a while, but when my family doc told me that I was working too much, I decided to use this clock to see exactly how long I have been working. "Has it helped?" ... well, only time will tell.

"Dude, we have a presentation at 11 and I am still on the reports. When are we going to make the slides."

"the slides .... huh."

As a management guy, I always knew how the slides should be made. If you make slides with too much of contents in it. Everybody will sleep...... seriously, everybody sleeps. If you make slides, with less contents, everybody will keep asking you questions. If your slide has a graph going downwards, thats the most deadliest slide you have and may god be with you. For those management sharks out there, will tear you into pieces. A piece of advice when you have such a graph, decrease the scale. (if you know what I mean ;) )

"relax, it will all be done on time." - for I knew just how to get the right blend.

Soon, it was the time to get the meeting started. James and I were ready with our great looking profit slides.

"So you guys know what time is it?" - says the boss. "Things are not going good for us. But we have manage to be steady on course." And before he starts his discussion on the economy, we began our presentation.

As the day passed, I kept thinking about this "time". Time is measured in a moment. It can be a second, minute, hour, .. a day... or maybe a month, year.... It does not matter which scale the moment is. What matters is, how good it is. People experience the moment differently during the same. The moment which makes me happy, could be the same moment that is making you sad.

It was the end of the day for me. I finished my work and got off to go to the cooler for a glass of water. While, walking down back from the cooler I heard a few things.

"What is this Tammy? Do you know what time is it? I need to get these copies made right now and attach it to the project file. We need to get it done, right now!" - that was the voice of boss, getting upset over the project been stalled since few documents got left out.

"Mr. Thomas, Please try to understand. I know what time is it. I know its late. But I really need to get my finishing gear today since I am leaving tomorrow early morning. I know its the store closing time...." - Peter said getting agitated.

"Hi Patricia, guess what. The insurance guy called and my insurance got approved. He was right on time." - said Tina, excited as she went across her cubicle to Patricia.

One thing I noticed is that as time passes, moments change. With passing of time, I can get a more happy moment or I can start becoming sad. No matter, what it is, lasts only a moment.

I sat on my chair looking at the last grains of sand falling through the clock and thinking about the moment at which I was.

Allan was getting all packed up to leave... seeing me sitting in my cubicle, he said

"hey, what time is it?" (...and I was back to where it all started.)