Time

So Google came up with a new feature today, that allows you to go back in time. http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

By the way, I am yet to believe this. I think this is an April Fool’s day hoax. But it just gives rise to a larger discussion about the sacredness of that one human invention that cannot go wrong – Time.

This is as close to a time-machine that you will ever get, a mass produced time-machine. You can send emails today to somebody wishing them for their birthday last month, and when the dear one accuses you of forgetting to wish them on their birthday, you can always claim innocent. In fact you can use the feature to blame the accuser of neglecting your emails and get a higher hand in the argument.
Already we have the facility of sending emails in the future. We can save an email in the drafts folder, and program to send it sometime in the later future.

With both these capabilities in place, today we can successfully claim to having achieved at least a semblance of Time Travel – the ability to travel back and forth in time similar to travelling back and forth between different points in space.

Here is more information on Time Travel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel

This is definitely an interesting feature as an experiment. But I do not support having this feature out in the public for everyone to misuse. In today’s virtual world, emails are considered sacred. It’s almost equivalent to written and signed off documents. Once you hit the send button, you are bound by your written word. Imagine a scenario like this: You are awaiting a response to an important query from one of the sponsors or vendors or the millions of other teams that you have to interface with in today’s collaborative world. The person who has to respond back is out playing golf or surfing or watching a movie or just in general being irresponsible. You reach a bottleneck and cannot proceed without the other team member’s input. Lots of money, time, energy and peace of mind is wasted in the meantime. Finally the person responds, but backdates his email response, so that it seems that he responded back in time. Now the gun is on your forehead, for having neglected the response.

This looks like one of those many features, which has an ample scope to be misused.

Even Gmail is limiting this feature to only 10 emails/year to any user. Their findings:
[(N x P) - /φ]/L = 10
N = Total emails sent
P = Probability that user believes the time stamp
φ = The Golden Ratio
L = Average life expectancy

I don’t know how the Gmail researchers came up with this formula, but my head tells me not at all. Not 10, not 1, not any. It’s a feature, which, if it falls into the wrong hands, can cause mass havoc. I like the comment left my one Mr. Michael L. on Gmail’s site: "This feature allows people to manipulate and mislead people with falsified time data. Time is a sacred truth that should never be tampered with."

On a more philosophical note, we are all aware of the direct, straightforward concept: time is motion. Time has a direction, and it is in that direction that it moves. This means that we live life according to a passing present moment. I am sure, ancient scholars, came up with the concept of time, and hours and days and months and years for some purpose. And by providing this feature of moving back and forth in time according to one’s free will, we are questioning the age old truth of the uniformity of time. That, there are 24 hours to each and every human being, regardless of your age, sex, nationality, race, educational background, etc. With this feature though, gmail users will have the additional facility of going back in time upto April 2004, at least 10 times a year. This means that gmail users have just added another (4*10) 40 years to their lives. So now think about this – Does time remain a uniform entity any more?

We need time. We need time to work, to eat, to sleep, and to accomplish all the daily chores of living. We also need time to know and understand our mates, our children, and our friends. Most of our relationships, daily tasks and other commitments, in fact, require more time than we have, and it is difficult to avoid the feeling that we could never have enough. Nor is our list of demands on our time complete. We have ignored the time we need to be alone, a necessary but invariably short- changed period.

With the increasing demand for more time, and the reducing supply of it, can the non-uniformity of time be counted as ethical anymore? Time was the last unfailing bastion of uniformity. Already monetary and physical sources of energy are no longer uniform. With time too falling prey to this, the future looks too bleak, from where we are standing today and looking at the past.

Happy Birthday to me!

Another year. Another birthday. A slow start to the day. Some many phone calls. Couple of gifts. A feel good factor. But a fear lurking in mind, just two words to be heard, 'Old-er' and 'Loneli-er'. As the day progresses ahead, some more phone calls. Plans made for dinner with friends in the evening. As evening approaches, all dressed up in the birthday cheer, I step out. Fun dinner with friends. Gifts some more. And then it's the time to disco. Hit the club, booze some, dance some, booze some more, dance some more. Time flies. Birthday ends. Well almost!

My story begins where my birthday ends.

It was a fun birthday. As fun, as fun could be. I couldn't have asked any more for my first birthday in an alien country. God bless friends, 'coz without them I would be agonizing over my loneliness on my special day.

I carried my gifts and walked to the subway station to catch a train back home. I was laden with gifts. As I got down the stairs of the 42nd Street Subway station, I could hear a sweet melody wafting through the air.

"Stromin my pain with her fingers
Singin my life with her words
Killing me softly with her song
Killing me softly with her song
Telling my whole life with her words
Killing me softly with her song"

Beautiful. The vocals were amazing. And the range captivating. And the guitar accompaniment was even better. Must be some really talented street musician, said my mind. I moved towards the direction from where the sounds were born.

A tall, lean, heavily dressed black man was playing the guitar and singing the song. His wiry strands of hair were falling all over his face as his face contorted with the emotions. The music being produced there at that moment, needed to reside on a disc and not simply drown away in the cacophony of the train noises. But sadly, that's the way it was.

He was surrounded by a group of around 7 people, excluding me. His captive audience of those 7 people included 2 couples, and then three single guys. Both the girls leaned on to their respective partner's shoulders, enjoying the sweet melody, feeling love only like how young, carefree souls can. You could feel the romance in the air, just at that moment. Of the remaining three single guys, two of them were swaying to the music, and the other one was seeming unfazed by the music, but you could still make out from his face, that his ears were rapt in attention.

And then there was me. I rested my gifts on a seat nearby, but still held on to the bouquet. I began swaying to the music too.

The song ended. His captive audience broke into a heartfelt applause.

Next song.

"When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me"

Ah! Ben King!

Midway through the song, the musician tried some antics. He began stopping midway through the song asking the audience to fill in the lyrics for him. It worked at times where the lyrics were memorable. The song was even better than the previous one.

The song ended. Applause again!

I took some money and proceeded to his guitar bag which was lying on the floor of the platform, to collect his moolah. I dropped the bills in there. That's when he looked up to me and said "Thank you, Sir!"

Him: Gentleman, I see you are coming from a party.
Me: Yes
Him: And is it a special occasion? I can see a bouquet...
Me: Oh Yes! Its ma birthday today.
Him: Oh wonderful.

And then he strummed his guitar strings into a familiar beat.

And he began singing -

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you

By the second line, his captive audience of 7 people had also joined him. There was mild clapping of some hands along with the song too.

Happy Birthday, dear ......

I could see 16 eyes thrust on my face.

I volunteered, "Joe"

Happy Birthday, dear Joe
Happy Birthday to you...

And then the beat intensified. The music envigorated its pace, and the people began singing faster once more the same 4 lines.

It was beautiful. My heart melted. There were tears in my eyes. I was afraid that they would roll over, and I would seem so sissy. But truly it was a moment worth cherishing.

The song ended. Everyone clapped loudly. Some couple of other strangers who weren't involved in the singing too came and wished me.

It was just perfect. When random strangers like these can care to make your birthday special for you, that's when you realize that there is still hope, love, care and humanity in this world. That's when you realize that the world is still just fine.

If there was ever any case for the yummiest, creamiest, temptiest icing on the cake, then this had to be it.

Happy Birthday to me!