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Thursday, March 03, 2005

Hard-pressed for time!

Last evening my next-door neighbour remarked, after seeing me after weeks, ' Hey, I'm seeing you after such a loooong time.' And I quipped back, 'You are so lucky, I haven't seen myself in a while.' OK, that was an exaggeration, but not very far from the truth.

Life in cities is so fast-paced whether it is the hectic commute to work, shopping for groceries, haggling with the sabjiwalas over the ever-increasing prices of veggies et al. You barely find any time for yourself. It's all taking a toll on me now since I have never been good in the Time-Management department. I couldn't even meet my cousin sister and my niece who were here for a few weeks in Mumbai. Waaaaaaah!! :-((

As I struggle to juggle between my school, studies(and I haven't gotten around to it much either) and murdering potatoes in the kitchen (which gobbles up every free moment that I have) this poem that I learnt when I was a kid comes to my mind...

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

- William Henry Davies

15 comments :

  1. Hey....Whatever it is, you find time to blog :-)

    Whats up with potato? Aloo paratha?

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  2. Hi Sangeeta,
    U r not alone...We forget to see ourselves... :)

    Whaterver it is, it's nice that u have some time to blog...!!!

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  3. W.H.Davies... hmm how can I forget that poem... thats one of the best poems I read in my schooldays.. i used to remember the entire poem, but now... :(
    hmm, life is soo busy here in B'lore too.. too much mechanical... thats why I was going for the 2 working days and 5 weekend days technique :D

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  4. Stand and stare, hmmm. Well, you can always stare while walking!

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  5. But isn't it rude to stare? :-)
    That's always been a wonderful poem. In the league of Daffodils and If.

    BTW, have you heard "Vienna (waits for you)" by Billy Joel? Pretty much on the same lines. Nice song too.

    Came here from Xena's blog...

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  6. Most of us have not time to live and then when thre's all the time in the world, you run out of life.

    You wait and wait thinking that the paper is precious, you cannot possiblly write as you will. And one day the ink dries out.

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  7. ...Meet the Neighbours...
    Thatz fine.. Atleast you see each other :)..

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  8. The time you have is directly proportional to how attractive the neighbour is. Right Na !! lol.

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  9. Sangeeta, since you are very busy now, you wouldn't like when you have a lot of free time. you might feel bored. that happened to sometime back.

    but keep blogging, thats always good :)

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  10. Ah.
    The pressures of time management.
    Eventually. You will end up having no time to manage time itself. But that is an extreme case.

    And soon, you will get used to it.
    Hope you find time always.

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  11. same here...i too sthink sometimes that what am i doing. my life is so routine. go to office, work, come back, sleep. and repeat in an infinite loop. i oughtta break out of this...

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  12. when we were young & studying they keep telling us, study hard don't enjoy now- when you make it and make tons of money you will be able to relax.. many people reliase too late that when you have tons of money u have no time....

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  13. Yep Prabhu and Krish, blogging is my haven where i retire to when i can do nothing else:p

    I know what u are saying @ Saranyan, I hate twiddling my thumbs and doing nothing too. Human nature I guess, we always want what is not there

    And Shantanu, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! wd have been the case if my neighbour was a male, but, she is a female, and I am straight:P

    Prabz...I hate making small talk:(( so i dont like meeting neighbours cos cooking is all they wanna discuss:(

    Yeah shantanuthat's what I feel like crying out at the moment Gawwwwwwwwd Gimme a breaaaaak!

    I'm a committed workaholic Sathish but this time, I guess my energy levels are low

    JInu that was one of the very few poems that I understood:p I dont have poetic leanings. I was able to understand urs though:P

    Hey Adelaine Welcome to the blog, and I so agree with u. am looking forward to retirement already:P

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  14. Eroteme Im sure the trees won't mind a bit, nor will the sparrows:P

    Swapnil Welcome to the blog

    Yeah, Prasad u chanced upon a good idea, spread the word:P

    Yeah right Animesh and trip and break my other leg too:-( Psst! Read my archives.

    Ahh Mistress, that one of my favourites too

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  15. No time! Good reason to not meet someone. My friends say the same thing to avoid me.

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