If I only had time

In my teens I listened to very moving song "If I only had time" by John Rowels. But in the warmth of my youth, I did not really cared about the meaning of its lyrics and sang along without knowing what it really meant. But lately these lyrics have started to make a scene for me as decades after first listening to this song and having lost my parents, a brother and many friends since. All of them would have never known that they had ran out of time and would have still been planning to see the rising sun the next day - but time runs out without giving one any time to say even a goodbye or even wave someone nearby.

Lately another death made me realize how we are always running out of time, specially sine recently returning from Lahore, the city of my birth, where I had gone to see an ailing relative. This was my reason to go to Lahore when I embarked upon my journey, happily chatting with my wife - not knowing why actually I was going to Lahore.

We reached late at night and on way to our lodging destination, I passed by a friend's house and my wife said that we must call on him tomorrow for he has been a good man, lively, smiling and a true friend. And I said: "Yes, tomorrow we will go to him." Never knowing there was no tomorrow for my friend.

Early next morning I received a message that my friend has passed away. I was simply stunned to read the message - but he did not have time more than what was granted to him. I went to his funeral and was thinking that I had come for some other purpose but God has actually called me to Lahore to attend my friend's funeral.

Life is all about time - time that we do not have. We make plans for tomorrows but never really knowing whether it would be there or not. Instead of living today or whatever time we have, we plan on times that is never ours. People amass millions and billions but leave without spending - not even taking a dime with them in packed in the casket and lowered down in the grave to disappear from the world forever.

You may like to listen to the song by John Rowells now - wont you?

From now on I live as if it is my last time - for I do not know whether I would have time to write my next post or not or see my sons away in foreign lands or friends scattered around, or even my wife sitting in the lounge watching TV as life vanishes in matters of seconds. 

Do live out your time fully - and live your today smiling and loving those around so that they preserve your last smiling and caring face in the memories forever.

Photo: Pixabay
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It is 11:11:11:11:11:11 AM

It is 11:11:11:11:11:11 AM at the time of writing this post. The second 11:11:11:11:11:11 will occur exactly after twelve hours at night. Seize this moment as it would take another 100 years to come again

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October the 29th – the day when the First Internet Message was sent

Millions of people use internet daily round the clock as easily as drinking a glass of water or peeling of a banana. The use of internet has linked people of the entire world in real time, making the world a global village, interconnected and well linked. People living on extreme ends don’t feel a second’s lag in conversing and communicating with each other. Not only this, millions of pages of useful knowledge get uploaded on the internet for viewing by multiple of millions of viewers.

But few would know that the journey of internet wasn’t that easy. It took “people” years to bring digital data visible to others rather than banking on tele-printers and other devices. Internet was known as ARPANET in 1969, when the first ever message was transmitted over it by Charley Kline, a student-programmer of UCLA, at 10:30 pm on 29th October 1969, just a few months after the first man stepped on the moon. Under the supervision of Professor Leonard Kleinrock, Kline transmitted from the university's SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to the Stanford Research Institute's SDS 940 Host computer. The message text was the word "login"; but only the letters “l and o” could be transmitted after which the system crashed.

The short message was the same as the 12 seconds or so flight time of the first aero plane built by the Wright Brothers in 1903. But as the technology developed, the ideas matured both for aircraft industry and the internet world. Today while we sit on our laptops or desktops and use the internet as easily as anything, the aero planes zoom over our heads, bringing the worlds together, connected and closer.

Related Reading: History of Internet (Wikipedia)

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If I only had Time

I often see people lamenting for not having time for them alone, their families and friends. Everyone is so engrossed into his work, his office and elsewhere that he is always short of time for people around him or people who love him. It seems that 'time deficit' is one of the main challenges facing most people face today and not knowing how to overcome this syndrome. Perhaps people forget that there probably is no other skill that one can muster that will give them a greater return than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices.

We all know that time cannot be saved – days pass by, leaving us more frustrated for not having one that, that and that and so on. But if we spend our time wisely, efficiently and productively, here won’t be any lamentations afterwards.

There comes a “time” in ones life, when he is afforded an opportunity when one can do things one had been wanting to do all one’s life. Those who cash the opportunity are the ones who have no regrets afterwards. But I see so many who have opportunities but wait for yet another better opportunity and then lose everything. I once had an opportunity and I really cashed on to it and did what many people before me in that office could not and waited for better days. So when I decided to do many things that I wanted, I was amazed to see all hurdles giving way one by one and I accomplished almost everything that I had on my mind. And I could do it by thinking through and planning my goal posts in advance that dramatically reduced the amount of time it took me to do the actual job.

I then came to know the secret of successful men and women in the enterprising world. They are effective and efficient. And above all can manage time to conform to their plans and ideas, that take them to their goalposts exactly, or nearly exactly, as per their schedule of work.

So those who say that there is too much to do and so little time they have, are in fact people who do not value time and schedule it properly. For such people there cannot be a better thing than to sit back and listen to John Rowel’s “If I only had time.”

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