The two-watch theory

Ratna Raman

An 'intriguing' (puzzling) proverb that did the rounds in the twentieth century declares: 'May you live in interesting times!' The expression 'interesting  times'   ironically  refers to times of war, confusion and conflict and sets up the placidity of peacetime  as uninteresting.

  In the twenty-first century,  moving  beyond the politics of  the 'long nineteenth century' and  grappling with the legacy of the twentieth  century,  humans  continue to  live in interesting times. The old sabres of war rattle and in peacetime, the world continues to be an unfair and unequal place. Interesting ideas and objects continue to engage and absorb humans.

Another adage on time avers that 'a man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure,' implying that it is better to have a singular perspective and be in control of the situation. The time for such belief has now come to an end since humans do not live in tribes and follow set patterns.

 In a global scenario, the jet-setter can no longer pursue a   life dictated by a solitary chronometer (clock) while straddling continents and crossing longitudes (imaginary lines running from the north to the south, marking time zones). The multi-tasking cell phone is also slowly edging out the unidimensional watch.

 The world as we know it, in any case, functions in multiple time zones. In fact, it also runs on two different calendars, each with its own time schedule. The annual Gregorian calendar begins in January and ends in December marking a linear year, and has been in use since colonial times. Republic and Independence Days, Christmas, Mayday and Women's Day fall on the same date each year in the solar calendar, although the day continues to change.

 Diwali, Janam-ashtami, Eid, the rozas and the navratras, for instance, are calibrated through lunar calendars.  Each year these Indian festivals are announced  in consultation with  the lunar calendar. Both day and  date change  each year  as a result of  detailed  calculations. 

So in a manner of  speaking, we  already wear two watches in the East,  and  many of us have grown up with the  unusual privilege of  having a calendar birthday and a star ('nakshatra') birthday and marvelled at the strangeness of  growing older only by a year at the end of  having celebrated two birthdays in the same  year. 

So the wearing of more than one watch in modern times is no longer an indication of vacillation or fickleness.  Modern life, more nuanced and multi-dimensional, demands the wearing of many watches, especially as hats are no longer uni-sex fashion accessories. Now, a wearer of two watches is someone with the freedom to choose. 

Recently instituted 'dual citizenship' (where a person is a citizen of more than one country), is a privilege, tantamount to wearing two watches at the same time.

The reason why the GST, projected as 'one nation, one tax' is difficult to comprehend is that we  continue to be  a nation of many states, with multiple taxes.

The recent affirmation of the Supreme Court of India that the right to privacy is a fundamental right seems to lean in favour of the two-watch theory. The court's affirmative judgment fosters personal and sexual freedoms, by declaring that such choice is 'unalienable' (cannot be taken away). In an age of plurality, more choices should be the 'aadhar' (source) that defines our freedoms.