What has changed over the years? Almost everything, one might say. Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, communication has become instantaneous, and the world has shrunk into a little screen in our hands. Yet, strangely, the essence of one thing remains unchanged: our struggle with TIME!
Take the 1970s, for instance. Making a trunk call was an exercise in patience, perseverance and, occasionally, divine intervention! You would book a call, wait for the operator to connect you and then sit anxiously beside the telephone, hoping to hear that magical ring. Sometimes it took a day, sometimes two, and on particularly memorable occasions, even three days! When the call finally came through, the feeling was nothing short of winning a lottery. You could almost shout, “Eureka! Eureka!”
There was even a hilarious parody of Reno’s song about Graham Bell, which drove home the frustration of making trunk calls. Its concluding message was that travelling all the way to Madras was a better option than waiting for a trunk call to connect. At least, you would reach your destination faster!
Fast-forward to 2026. Surely, things must be better? After all, we have smartphones, instant messaging, online shopping and sophisticated courier networks that promise delivery at the click of a button. But hold on!
Now, when you dispatch a courier, you are introduced to an entirely new test of patience. First comes the reassuring message: ‘Shipment picked up.’ Then it moves to ‘In transit’, followed by ‘Reached destination hub’, ‘Out for delivery’ and, finally, the much-awaited ‘Delivered’. Between these four or five stages, you find yourself checking the tracking link more often than you would have checked your old telephone during the trunk-call era!
And if the parcel happens to be a surprise gift meant for someone’s birthday or anniversary, the suspense becomes unbearable. You plan everything meticulously, dispatch it well in advance and confidently expect it to arrive on the special day. But the courier has other plans. By the time the parcel arrives, the birthday is history, the anniversary celebrations are over and your surprise has become an exercise in belated affection!
Perhaps we have progressed from waiting for a telephone operator to waiting for a delivery executive. The technology has changed, the vocabulary has become more sophisticated, but the waiting game continues!
The truth is that TIME remains the ultimate boss. No matter how scientifically advanced or technologically sophisticated we become, we cannot command it to move faster or oblige it to wait for us.
In the 1970s, we waited for a voice. In 2026, we wait for a parcel. The gadgets have changed, the frustrations have evolved, but patience remains an endangered virtue!
Technology may conquer distance, but TIME still refuses to be delivered on demand!
