WRIST WATCH

WRIST WATCH:           

                                     Last week when Samoy was waiting for the train at Bhubaneswar platform, he was probably the only person who was wearing a wrist watch. No one asked him the time as there was no need for it, with huge digital time piece in the railway station. There was time when time experts were there in different villages to tell you the time. In small towns the bell from Treasury, Jails or Church used to tell us the time. Now you find watches every where even in burning Ghats and temples! Few old people were there who would tell you the time just by looking at their internal clock or the sky, not any more. People are very conscious of time but are not punctual in India! No one looks at your wrist watch; neither asks you the time or the price. Samoy thought people need two more supporting gadget in their mobile—one revolver and a siren system for emergency? Most of Samoy’s wrist watches have stopped due to exhausted battery. Use and throw type of nice wrist watches are available for fifty to hundred rupees, why to purchase a battery for 65 rupees? The shopkeeper would ask original or duplicate? Most of us know that both are same but to show our status we go for the original. Now a day’s thieves have stopped snatching wrist watches? Giving a wrist watch as gift is a total wastage. Earlier days a wrist watch was in the demand list of the bridegroom but it’s replaced with a smart phone! Venders and some old people at times ask you time if they see you wearing a wrist watch, which leads to good conversations. Now even a dead man wears a wrist watch!

                                    To some people, watches are simply antiquated accessories that told us the time before our iPhones took over. Samoy had his first Anglo Swiss wrist watch from a shop in Calcutta at the age of 19 years when he entered a medical college. That was a mechanical watch still in working condition even after 53 years. At the twilight of his life, Samoy still has the old habit of putting a pen in his chest pocket and wearing a wrist watch before he steps out of his house.

Watches always have been stylish and will be. A lot of famous people had worn them through history. Watches are a timeless and classic accessory that quickly improves any man’s appearance. Where will things wind up? Only time will tell. For now at least, it's clear that the wristwatch industry can take a licking and keep on ticking. For ‘today’ time has no value as a strike has been called in India by the opposition parties, no looking at your watch—relax.

Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy, Bhubaneswar.