Apart from indulging in actual work, recreational activities and sleep, we also have to devote a lot of time to our lives in Waiting waiting in banks, hospitals, corporations and where not. Waiting is indeed a matter of great irritation especially when the surrounding ambience is most often crowded, chaotic, unpleasant and even without adequate sitting facilities. It also results in a colossal wastage of precious time as we could have performed other necessary tasks. However, in this hugely populated country, with service providing institutions being disproportionately less, confronting unending queues is inevitable. So when there is no provision of escaping this phenomenon of waiting, we must explore various paths to utilise it in a constructive way or at least find avenues to make it tolerable or even entertaining.
However, prior to that I must mention a set of people who are least perturbed by waiting. One, those who love gossiping. Anytime, anywhere, in any circumstances, they can strike up a conversation with an absolutely unknown set of people and they get engrossed in such a scale and depth that it seems that the more they wait the more they relish.
Folks not interested either in gossip or social media certainly find the wait intolerable. So they can explore things which they love. For example, book lovers can carry any paperback edition with them. If finding themselves in a queue, they can effectively utilise the time in going through it. Nice utilisation of time while getting entertained! Since my father is interested in crosswords and Sudokus, his bag religiously carries a pen and the relevant page of the daily if he ventures somewhere with a chance of having to wait.
Since I find salvation in writing, waiting time gets very constructively utilised by me. Be it in sitting or standing position, I bring out my mobile set and start writing a piece as I am doing right at this moment revolving “The Wait” while testing my patience to get vaccinated and despite long queues indeed how nice the time is flying.
Ending my piece with some memorable wait which as a nature connoisseur, I found it very pleasurable. While travelling to Imphal from Kohima, as soon as we crossed over the Nagaland-Manipur border to reach a sleepy hamlet named Mao, our bus came to an abrupt stop. It was learnt that a mechanical defect has cropped up. So we will have to disembark as the bus will return to Kohima and again come back after necessary repairs! Hours continue to pass by, yet no sign of the bus’s return! Meanwhile I have criss-crossed the habitation countless number of times! Indeed, Mao was so beautiful. Surrounded by lofty mountain ranges on all sides, it housed a few eateries and a post office perched high on a hilltop. We took a bird’s eye view of Mao and the scenic surroundings from there. As the bus returned from Kohima to make an onward journey to Imphal, I felt a bit of sadness as the wait in beautiful Mao came to an end.
So let’s negotiate the Wait in a constructive and positive way be it through gossip and laughter, reading or writing or exploring the surroundings if there exists provision of moving around while waiting for our goal.
