{"id":3588,"date":"2015-06-12T07:42:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T07:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2015\/06\/12\/dr-r-neerunjun-gopee-135\/"},"modified":"2017-10-25T12:46:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T08:46:33","slug":"dr-r-neerunjun-gopee-135","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/dr-r-neerunjun-gopee-135\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Time Fly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, does it? Yes? No? But we do isn\u2019t it? Or do we? <\/span><\/h4>\n

Consider this: when we say that we are flying, in actual practice it means that we are sitting still in a plane and that it is the plane which is flying. The plane is performing the action of flying, and as we are not doing that ourselves, in absolute terms we are actionless as regards the flying \u2013 although we may move about in the plane, say to use the toilet. Another way of putting it would be to say that we are being actionless in action \u2013 and that is a big philosophical debate which we will not go into, but it\u2019s a fascinating one to explore.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s come back to the question of whether time flies or not. For that we\u2019ll have to start by understanding what time is. For example, is it something that actually exists, or is it something artificial that\u2019s in our imagination and does not have any independent existence, as when we say that some object has got a length, that we can actually see and measure? Of course we do measure time too \u2013 but then we do not see it. Aren\u2019t we very clever indeed, to have invented means to measure something invisible!<\/p>\n

But we do have an impression that time flies, by which we understand that it is going past very rapidly. And when we think it\u2019s going slowly, we say it is flowing. So that\u2019s how we perceive the phenomenon of time, and therefore, as opposed to being something that actually exists, time is something that we have invented; it is in our mind, a mental construct. But nevertheless, quite real to us because it comes into practically everything that we do in our daily lives, but also puts some order into how we look at the passage of events. The truth be told, there is no definitively agreed definition of time among scientists, or even among philosophers, although we have built our lives around the concept of time, as a reality which we deeply feel.<\/p>\n

For the Wikipedia, \u2018Time is a measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them. Time is often referred to as the fourth dimension, along with the three spatial dimensions (NB: length, breadth, width).\u2019 Physicists lump time and space together as a \u2018spacetime continuum\u2019, which is a very useful concept on which the edifice of physical science is built. Trying to understand its complexities is something that only a few people can do, and we\u2019ll leave it to them and come down to the more mundane aspects of time.<\/p>\n

I was talking to a busybee niece of mine last night, whose job is training people. She has an extremely busy schedule, which also involves travel abroad and so is ever on the move. And, with two small kids, her situation is like that of so many other couples, juggling profession and family, and social life which is pretty hectic too when you have a big family-cum-circle of friends. Many of whom, befriended at the university, you hardly have\u2026time!… to meet, as they are also struggling in the same whirl!<\/p>\n

At one stage in our conversation, she said, \u2018time flies, non Uncle? It really does, this week has just flown by!\u2019 Yes, it does indeed beti I replied, you\u2019re telling me! And this feeling is shared by many people I meet, and even we retirees complain about not knowing where the time goes \u2013 a literal translation of pas conne kot\u00e9 letemps la aller!, meaning there are so many things to do, but we don\u2019t complete them for lack of time. And yet these are things that we have taken upon ourselves pour meubler le temps. Another way we put it is we don\u2019t seem to find the time, pas trouve l\u00e9temps. And any number of expressions to articulate the idea come to mind, like \u2018hey, it\u2019s already the end of May!\u2019 or, \u2018half the year is nearly over can you imagine!\u2019 or, \u2018only the other day it was New Year!\u2019 And so on and so forth.<\/p>\n

When we reflect on it, we find that, on the one hand, there is the time that we can measure by the clock, in terms of seconds, minutes and hours, and for longer periods it\u2019s the days, years, centuries and other notations when it comes to larger scales. Hindus, for example, conceive of time in terms of eras known as yugas and mahayugas which are of astronomical dimensions and are of a cyclic nature, in contrast to other systems which are of a linear nature, that is, there is a beginning and an end to time. Interesting ways of conceptualizing, each with its own implications as far as, for example, human life and human destiny are concerned.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is what we can refer to as psychological time, one aspect of which manifests as our bodily rhythms: for example, our wakefulness and sleep cycle is one of them, and we refer to these as our internal rhythms or body clocks. Another aspect is when we feel that time has slowed down so much that it is suspended \u2013 but into an eternal moment: try sitting down at the seaside with your beloved when the sun is setting and the air seems to hang still too. You may end up sitting in silence there a whole night before you realise that dawn is breaking! All bodily needs and functions were also suspended! How much time was that? An eternity, or only so little?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how, when Einstein was asked to explain his Theory of Relativity to some lay people, he is supposed to have said, \u2018think of it like this: if your hand touches a hot plate, one minute will feel like an hour, but when you are sitting with your girl friend, one hour will seem like one minute!\u2019 Who will deny that this is the reality?<\/p>\n

In the Bhagavad Gita, a major scripture of the Hindus, Lord Krishna says that at the time of your death, you see your whole lifetime passing before you. And one can imagine how much time is available at the moment of death!<\/p>\n

In the whole of literature that we are familiar with, perhaps there is no more beautiful poem than that of Alphonse de Lamartine\u2019s \u2018\u00d4 temps! Suspends ton vol\u2019 that touches our beings so deeply, and that is the most apt to end this piece with:<\/p>\n

\u2018\u00d4 temps ! Suspends ton vol, et vous, heures propices !<\/em><\/p>\n

Suspendez votre cours : <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Laissez-nous savourer les rapides d\u00e9lices <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Des plus beaux de nos jours !<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Assez de malheureux ici-bas vous implorent, <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Coulez, coulez pour eux ; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Prenez avec leurs jours les soins qui les d\u00e9vorent, <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Oubliez les heureux.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Mais je demande en vain quelques moments encore, <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Le temps m\u2019\u00e9chappe et fuit ; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Je dis \u00e0 cette nuit : Sois plus lente ; et l\u2019aurore <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Va dissiper la nuit.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Aimons donc, aimons donc ! De l\u2019heure fugitive, <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

H\u00e2tons-nous, jouissons ! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

L\u2019homme n\u2019a point de port, le temps n\u2019a point de rive ; <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Il coule, et nous passons.\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Time, sublime\u2026but also kaal, the devourer\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

*\u00a0 Published in print edition on 12 June 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, does it? Yes? No? But we do isn\u2019t it? Or do we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[6707,103,6706],"class_list":["post-3588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-alphonse-de-lamartines","tag-dr-r-neerunjun-gopee","tag-time-fly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-VS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}