Discipline, Talent and Time

Discipline may not be a substitute for talent but talent evaporates without it.

He wasn't talented but he did treat things gently, patiently and took his own time to understand them and get familiar with them. Ask him something all of a sudden and he'd look lost. Give him few minutes and he'd be ready to impress you with his response. He had this genuine interest in understanding how things work rather than be prepared with tailor made responses to situations. Perhaps, at the age of 14 itself he had understood that nothing is permanent, everything changes.
He wasn't disciplined, he hardly followed a time table, except for the school time table which he had to. He too his own sweet time doing things. Once he was forced to finish off something before the deadline and he did. All other deadlines were excused for him so that he could meet this deadline. The teachers were rather surprised though. They could clearly see the drop in quality of this work as compared to his previous submissions, which often happened few days later. Some teachers were fine with his late submissions because they marveled at his output but some thought that special treatment to one student could mean partiality which eventually authorities were not ready to do. Poor chap, he suffered due to this.

So, in a conventional sense, he was neither talented, nor disciplined. But he was both, yes he was!
You could call him talented, his talent lies in his perspective, his approach towards things, situations.You could call him disciplined, when doing one thing, he paid complete attention to that thing only. He never compromised with this time and attention to his work. He overshot deadlines only because he knew he could do better and only when that zenith of perfection is achieved that he is ready to proudly claim that work as his own.
Perhaps we end up defining discipline and talent wrongly! Why do we have to use time to define discipline and talent?

Take a break: Technology Matrix

I have 32 tabs opened in Chrome, I am listening to UK Top 40 singles in my VLC playlist, I am connected to about 30 people at the moment through gtalk, some person is downloading something from my PC through Strong DC++ at this moment.
These days we try to pack our day with work (which we must do), fun (which we do to relax and enjoy life), socializing (meeting new people, mostly for the purpose of increasing our contacts list!) etc.
"Comforts" may be the reason for all the advancements in technology, but the hidden agenda, as I see it, is challenging the supremacy of time. From ENIAC to iPhone, it has all been consistent and hard efforts put by many of the best brains in the world. Better quality, faster processing, many things packed into a device that can sit on one's palm, all this and much more. We get a lot more work done in lesser time, yet spend most of the rest of the time using these technologies, be it for entertainment or communication. We forward stupid chain e-mails, write silly SMSs to each other, chat online for hours instead of meeting even once a week! We fill all the time saved due to these wonderful technologies using these technologies only! We, indeed, are in a matrix world and we don't even realize it.

Looking at a watch

Occasionally, a passerby has asked me for the time. Quite often such a passerby has been a laborer or a person who doesn't have a watch, be it for financial reasons or lack of ability to read the time.
This reminded me of those days when I was a kid and didn't have a wrist-watch. I did have many wrist watches at different times but they stopped working within few months so I developed a belief that a wrist watch doesn't last long. Then one day in 10th class, I saw a titan watch on one of my tuition-mate's wrist. It looked good and I asked him about it. He said the watch has been serving him for last 2 years. I was quite impressed and decided to own such a wrist-watch. I then realized that the previous wrist-watches I had owned were kid's watches and had lesser lifetime.
As a kid, I had the watch showing time as numbers, i.e., the digital watch. It was quite convenient. I don't remember when I learned to read the time but it must have been in 1st or 2nd class. Presently I don't think I'll be comfortable enough reading time from a digital watch as I have got used to the minute hand and hour hand aligned with each other at an angle, and the seconds hand ticking.
I also remember twisting and tilting my head in the direction of the face of the wrist watch of a person near me, to know the time, rather than asking him/her. :D
A common prank which everyone must be aware of, can be played on the less attentive ones. Ask a person for time who is holding his drink in the same hand as his wrist-watch. The less attentive one won't take care of the drink and directly twist his arm to look at the time.
A watch/clock is indeed one of the complex instruments and time one of the essential need for our existence.
P.S. - Could asking for time be a good way of starting a conversation? Take out your watch, hide it in your pocket, approach a pretty gal/handsome guy and ask for the time. :D