Getting a dose of the “Being Busy” fever

It’s such a busy world. Everywhere I look, I see people rushing by and no one knows where the other is headed. Kids rush to school, one of the bigger ones tripping over a stone as he pores over a textbook.  His Mom was too busy the previous night to bother about his class test in school. She was on the phone for a straight two hours, planning the weekend’s housewives’ day-out with her friend. The Dads of the world rush to office, wannabe Dads and Dads in the making run behind their legal (often newly so) wives, buying them every item of lacy fancy from the overpriced boutique near the house.

I even see things rushing by. The winds are stronger; it’s already nearing the end of July and we have several gallons of yearly quota left to fulfill, say the monsoons. No wonder Delhi has been finally getting some rain and the sun is happily enjoying half-day offs. Plastic packets of potato chips fly by – they need to meet peers under the “Say No To Plastics” Board. Particles of dust – abandoned by a step motherly pre-rain-shower-breeze – wheeze past. The cheery members of their light-headed, dusty family giggle at some heavy-duty vehicles whose natural speeding impulse has been checked by a much too common traffic jam.

You can be too busy to put the milk in the refrigerator. Or you may be too busy to iron the clothes in the night. I tried to reason with my cousin…but you can’t be… “Exactly di, you can’t be judgmental about these things. If I was too busy to lock the house, then I was! This is no time when I would fool around or lie you see.” Of course. Never mind how burglars broke into her rented apartment and got away with her laptop and gold earrings before the housemaid arrived at the scene.

On similar, if rather tamer lines, you can be too busy to call up friends and relatives, be a social networking regular and keep up with that ever-expanding email inbox. “You never ring up.” complains the best friend. “All the spare time that you have is scheduled for that better half of yours.” Thankfully though, I find schedules safely removed from the realms of love. The day the two collide will definitely be doomsday. Can you imagine the likes of “But you were supposed to love me at 4’o clock!” “I am sorry darling, how about we shift the arrangement to another day?” I’d request you to kindly ignore the literal or otherwise connotation of the term when used in the aforementioned regard.

Those people in shiny offices claim they are too busy to eat, and hence too busy to attend the wedding of their younger brother.  If you thought attending a wedding attains some inner, nobler purpose, you might consider a reality check. Barring the shopping and the food, a wedding can be a pain you know where. Especially so if you are close to that very vulnerable ‘marriageable age’ . You will be surprised to find some people happily shed their cottony covers of busy-ness and advice you on the sense and sensibilities of a well-timed alliance.

The younger brother in turn, claims he is too busy to personally invite his friends from school and college – the ones who had solemnly pledged to have a riot at each other’s bachelor party. The bachelors claim they are too busy to ‘invest’ in a committed relationship. The investment bankers of course are too busy to do anything much but pack in truckloads of money. The world has really progressed. People are too busy for the people in their lives. If the party goes on, they may actually have the good fortune of being too busy to live.

I am still very small fry. Over the past two weeks, I have only been too busy to blog.