Waiting Games
I love my country, otherwise known as the ‘land of queues’. Waiting has become a way of my life. I always waited for everything from collecting water, getting into a bus or a train or driving license, and even admission to the school. It is a waiting game from morning till evening. Waiting is fun but gets boring sometimes. In times of instant gratification, waiting also comes as a blessing. Some senior citizens wait for their turn to travel to the heavens. Girls wait for boys and the boys for girls to say yes. Sometimes waiting becomes a giant monster that breaks relationships.
I remember waiting for a movie ticket at Sangam theatre in Bangalore. The queue was very long, and I was unsure whether I would get access. Mr Munroe, the theatre owner, dressed in a formal suit, looked at my restlessness, approached me with a smile and gave his piece of wisdom for waiting- Patience is the crown jewel of all the virtues.
Waiting time or the queuing time is synonymous in some way. Customers enter a queue to avail themselves of the service of seeing a doctor, collecting a ration, getting a COVID vaccination or entering a metro or a bus. The First In First Out (FIFO) principle kicks in, which means the first in line gets the service. Some eager beavers want to jump the queue and be ahead of the pack, while others start shouting in a row. Service agencies employ several innovative methods to control the strings, such as token management in banks and clinics.
Jumping a column is an art and science in my world. Sometimes particular objects are used to indicate the priority. In my swimming pool, one lady keeps her water bottle at the beginning of the lane to show that she has arrived first and has the right to use the swimming lane. It is similar to my country cousins leaving handkerchiefs in the bus seats or theatres to indicate the informal reservation. Proxies come in handy for waiting to collect school or college application forms or passports. Surprisingly, this process works.
While waiting, people have developed innovative methods to keep themselves busy. Some carry a newspaper or a book to read or play card games. A few get into a conversation with the neighbour if there is some interest. The technology offers several solutions now- music, podcasts on headphones, FB, Instagram on demand if there is Wifi around. Texting is an excellent tool while waiting.
Indian Railways provided me ample opportunity to learn and try many waiting games. Gone are the days when people talked to each other while travelling. The commuters have no time to look around and exchange pleasantries with neighbours. I learnt to take a short nap in a waiting room awaiting a train arrival. Occasionally, I fend off boredom by walking up and down the platform and counting the number of people sitting or standing. Sometimes I counted one to a hundred and reversed the count to pass the time. I remember to have counted the number of people wearing a white dress on one occasion. I get to decide my algorithm.
When I was in school, I accompanied my father to a wedding in Tirupathi. The event was a little after midnight, and my father decided to return after the wedding as both had school to attend the next day. Tirupathi — Raichur passenger was standing on the platform and was to leave by 10 pm. My father was happy that the train was still there. He found an empty carriage. The return journey would take about six hours, and we would be home by 6 am the next day, giving us enough time to prepare to go to school. We grabbed two seats and quickly went into a deep slumber as we were exhausted. Commotion outside and the daylight woke us up. We were delighted that we arrived at our destination quickly. We descended from the compartment. To our utter dismay, we found that the train was still at Tirupathi and had not moved an inch in the last six hours. We had a blissful sleep waiting for the train to move. I do not recall now how we returned home.
As Joyce Meyer has rightly put it, patience is not simply the ability to wait — it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.
Do you remember the famous British actress Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady?
“Just you wait, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait
You’ll be sorry but your tears ‘ll be to late
You’ll be broke and I’ll have money”
