Where has the time gone?

The weather was lovely today. It rained for a bit, bringing down the hideously high temperatures here. And the all too familiar, always-reminiscent though oft-missed, scent of wet mud caught up with me today. At once, the age old thoughts came back, of running to the terrace to get the first drops of rain on my head, running to the window at the first sounds of rain on the ground, trudging home on wet rainy days, and the amaaaaazing feeling of the cup of piping hot filter coffee in my hands, as the rest of me would still be damp and cold, at least psychologically!!!

And that's when I heard a voice call out - 'Assignment, case prep, let's finish dinner soon, so we can get to reading it. Its 30 pages, mind you' Someone screamed from another side - 'Did you see the stuff on the hypothesis testing and confidence intervals?' My confidence took a beating for sure! Here I was, smelling the wet mud, and there were people ona different plane altogether. And I thought, where on earth is my time going? Where am I losing it? Literally? Why was I always pressed for time, day in and day out, in spite of the fact that the grind has not really started as yet. Why is it that I have not had the time to speak to some of my friends? Why is it that I have had to very rudely cut people off mid-conversation, just to go and get some stuff done? Why am I running like crazy, yet realizing ruefully that the pile of pending tasks just keeps growing by the day? Am I the only one, or is someone else around who identifies with my frustrating sense of well... I don't know what!

And tonight, at 11, while walking across to the usual hangout, to discuss the case with my gang as I'd like to call them, I noticed the weather again. I noticed the sound of the dry leaves scraping against the concrete roads. I noticed the wind in my hair, the gentle cool feeling on my feet as I walked by the grass. And then, as if on cue, Davies screamed in my ears -
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.