Setting Indian standards for time
By D.M. Singh

IN India, the deviance in what we say from what we do is so wide, so much that the respondents plan their reactions with very high tolerances so as to fit into Indian standards. This is specially so in the matter of time schedule. There is unbearable delay in the commencement of an official meeting or an august ceremony. Socially or officially there is scant effort to adhere to a fixed time schedule.

A chief guest is never expected to arrive at the scheduled time and visitors are mentally prepared to wait for an extended length of time for the function to start late.

The visiting chief guest is scared of reaching in time. Remember the satirical in Jaspal Bhatti’s Flop Show ? The chief guest reaches the venue on time and is mistaken as an ordinary visitor. He is thrust a paint brush in hand to help complete the final touches to the welcome gate at the venue!

Nothing is expected to be solemnised at the appointed time. Even official meetings in our country never start at the scheduled time. Things are taken casually and, in fact, more casually by more senior officers.

It is not so in countries like Japan where zero-defect, zero loss, zero break down and zero accident are the targets in their operational behaviour in all walks of activity. People move every breath with a nationalistic bend and they value time, "said Brijmohan Lall Munjal, a business magnate and chairman of the Hero Honda group as he narrated an episode related to his visit to Japan sometime back. "I had to attend a meeting in a particular hall of a hotel in Japan scheduled to start at 5.00 pm. Since it was an important meeting, I made sure to be there at the scheduled venue of meeting at about 4.40 pm. But was surprised to find no one there. I waited for about five minutes and checked up whether the meeting stood firm. I was told that the meeting stood as scheduled. While I waited, it was only at about five minutes to 5 that the people started pouring in. Within five minutes everybody arrived and the meeting commenced. The meeting was over as per schedule and all the participants left. I was wonder-struck at the sense of punctuality and value of time in their heads and hearts and nevertheless embedded in their culture," said Munjal.

In India, since the different constituents arrive at the meeting with an abstract divergence in the scheduled time, decision on many issues is taken without collective application of mind and the same casual approach comes into play in all facets of activity, eluding seriousness and sincerity. This results in meetings merely ending up as eating, cheating and meeting, thus adversely affecting the interests of the country.

The disregard for a time schedule is still worse in case of social functions, Take the case of a marriage reception or a baraat — an august social get together common to all communities and strata. The time given on the invitation card is never adhered to by either side.

A dinner organised is considered to have been organised with the desired warmth by the host only if it extends well past midnight and obviously well beyond the pre-determined time. The organisers dwell with glee on the belated conclusion of the dinner. The length of delay is projected as a measure of the proportion of enjoyment to the guests. Perhaps, a good number of guests were helplessly extending the stay only for the pleasure of the host.

Solitary instances of some strict disciplinarians do result in the start and the conclusion of the functions on time. Such social functions are often branded by many as having been organised sans the desired fanfare and warmth. There are instances where the hosts are taken unawares on the arrival of guests in time, contrary to their expectations based, of course, on prevalent "Indian standards."

The total system has undergone a shift towards worse beyond elastic limits, an effort by a small fraction of disciplinarians to reform is ridiculed and they are rather branded as cold, brute or unsocial.

In the present era of total quality management and productivity management, it is inevitably essential not to lose time. We have to start valuing time in all walks of life and consume this precious money in exchange for some real energy gain or value addition either in the system or the organisations. It is an era where even time costing is done for the services rendered precisely and analytically. This culture is fast penetrating from the West to the East, even in socio-professional trades. "I can’t allow a patient to continue discussing his ailment upto any length of time for the sake of his satisfaction. I must charge a consultation fee based on value for my time and in fact I have recently attended a work-shop on time-costing for the medical professionals," says. Supreet Soni, a renowned dental surgeon.

We need to build national character and reform work culture. It is not possible easily. It is a Herculean task. The entire society or nation has to be stirred up and a wave generated. The national ethos of value for time has to be popularised and a conventional thought of delay/drift in time schedule bred into the mindset of the countrymen has to be dragged out. A cut-off date has to be fixed so that no one is unsure of punctuality culture being adopted nationwide in all walks of life. This should start right from the parliament and prime minister’s house and office to the smallest office; right from the most vital official function to the smallest official deleberation.

A very wide publicity shall have to be given by the government and non-government organisations to the cut off date which shall loudly speak of a commitment from the highest office in govrnment to keep up committed time for any and every work after the cut-off date. It shall urge upon the people to follow punctuality as a way of life thenceforth in all the programmes (official, professional as well as social) in the personal as well as national interest. Abiding by the fixed schedule of time has to be campaigned for seriously. So much so that it should be monitored without saying at the outset in any meeting and those contravening it may be looked down upon, irrespective of their stature. It shall, hopefully, lay the foundation for building the mansion of national character with age-long mortar in the form of a vital characteristic valuing time as a way of life. Once that happens, we shall see the dawn of a transformed Indian culture, way of life or say a transformed Indian standard.