AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS...

Last evening, the heat indoors and the resulting perspiration drove me out of my abode. The weather was very humid and the breeze almost zilch. A few minutes into my stroll, I stopped to investigate a random rustle of the leaves. It happened in patches until the beak appeared first, followed by the head, some feathers and finally the entire sparrow. Almost instantly, in the distance, something else caught my attention.

The sky was beginning to turn grey. And jutting out of nowhere was this huge electric pole, dwarfing all the trees and houses in its path. The tiled sloping red roofs; green, yellow and rusty leaves; the huge wirework; and the ominous clouds - all seemed to speak to me. I could, in that very moment, see time. With my head heavy and my vision blurred, I continued my walk. Only this time, I was shaken.

There was something deeply bothering me. Images were being scanned in my mind. Of those, one stood out. An artisan working on the Alhambra. This appeared in a television programme and the image was a reconstruction of how workers went about building this exotic palace. We had something in common. Time.

Time had watched him, while he was chiseling away the stones. Time witnessed the sculpting of those intricate carvings. But, it remained unmoved and impartial. Time inched on - second by second. Until time is here, with me, now.

But, the flurry of images continued. I imagined Akbar, while he thought and while he fought. I went further back, to the construction of the pyramids, how a commoner ate and worked on the mastabas. Time had watched human evolution in action. Time saw Ramapithecus and Australopithecus, then afarensis, habilis, erectus, among others, and us. It remained unmoved and impartial.

And however hard I tried to go back in time, it just kept on forging ahead, as if my existence did not matter. As if the human race, and the universe that contains it, did not matter. The insignificance troubled me.

Since morning, I've been reading on time warp and the slowing down of time. Extremely fascinating stuff. But, for now, let me just say that though time troubles me, am glad to have found some good company in it. And yes, this too, shall pass...