Not on my watch A passage through time By Cecil Pinto
One day when I was in Standard VI, or Sixth Grade as some students now call it, the headmaster walked into the class and asked all those who had wrist watches to stand up. I couldn’t as I didn’t have one. Six students in a class of forty stood up. That is 15%. I am sure today more than 30% of students in the sixth grade possess their own mobile phones. Anyway, the headmaster asked for volunteers among the six to ring the school bell. Everybody volunteered. The headmaster in his infinite wisdom chose my classmate Baltazar Pontes, with Joe D’Souza as backup. For the next two years Baltazar rang the school bell every 45 minutes to signal change of ‘periods’ and the interval. This was in 1978 at St Thomas Boys School, Aldona. Not many parents then could afford to buy children watches. Only wards of Gulfees and similar richer parents had that privilege. Leave alone students, some of the teachers couldn’t afford a wrist watch either. One particularly arrogant know-it-all teacher, let’s call him Sir Adolf, boasted that he didn’t need a watch and could tell time just by looking at the sun’s position in the sky. Of course this made him particularly time-challenged when it rained, and in the night. One day Sir Adolf must have got a pay raise as he came to school sporting a brand new HMT watch which he claimed was water-proof, a new concept for us. In fit of bravado he put the watch in a glass of water and proceeded to take his period. At the end of the class with a flamboyant gesture he retrieved his watch from the glass and put it on his wrist, giving the dial just a passing glimpse. The split second quickly disguised change of expressions told us a lot. The watch was not seen for a couple of weeks and if any student enquired about it he would be kept kneeling outside the class. I think Sir Adolf in his enthusiasm didn’t get the fine distinction between water-proof and water-resistant. Apparently the same watch was a source of amusement in another class a few weeks later after it was repaired for waterlogging. A Shipee’s son had a Casio watch which he claimed to be shock proof; a claim he constantly vindicated by throwing his watch on the floor and walls at every opportunity. Sir Adolf claimed that Made-in-India watches did not need any stamp of ruggedness as they were made for rough use. He gently dropped his watch on the floor to prove his point. The watch promptly burst apart into a dozen pieces. After this second incident Sir Adolf used his, twice repaired in two months, watch in the conventional careful manner. Another student, son of a relatively rich man, showed off his new Rado watch which made absolutely no impression on us village boys who were not aware of international brands. In fact he got stuck with the nickname ‘redo’ (buffalo) thanks to his watch. I was given my first watch at the age of twelve. It was quite bulky by today’s standards and had to be wound every day. Also an HMT model, with a heavy metal wristband and a day-date display which had to be adjusted whenever a month wasn’t exactly 31 days. Everything about it was mechanical. At the time my Dad had a Seiko Automatic that we had great fun shaking so we could hear the winding mechanism inside rotating. My sturdy HMT watch kept me good time right through school and even later till my 12th standard when I acquired my next watch which was flimsy by HMT standards. It was gifted to me by a ‘foreign returned’ relative and was the LCD type with a dark red digital numeric display against a black background. The other type now popular, with the black display against a grey background were far more expensive. Compared to the mechanical watches these red LCD watches were extremely accurate and didn’t have the day-date problem once the correct year was set. They used something called a quartz for accuracy. Till date I cannot understand how a jewel can take the place of balance wheels and springs. Unfortunately after so many years of an analogue display I couldn’t get to time myself using a digital display. I needed to see a hand and be able to estimate the time left for the hand to reach another specific place on the dial. Even today when I see a numeric digital time display my mind’s eye converts it into a round dial with hands. I quickly mastered the rather simple technique of setting the time and date on these digital watches and used this new knowledge to gain some degree of popularity with dumb females. I also bought a book on how to solve the Rubix Cube for the same reason - but that is another story for another day. Once I spent an entire hour on the mezzanine of Babaji Cold Drinks at Mapusa setting the digital time on a pendant watch of a girl with whom I was hoping to score. I convinced her she didn’t need to take the necklace off while I went about my work. Suffice it to say while other couples were busy necking I was merely marking time. All the physical proximity and my fiddling did not get me any dividends. I no longer wear a wrist watch since I have my cellphone about me all the while. But it can become a bit tedious when I have put the cellphone off, when for example I am watching a movie, to put it on again just to check the time. My computer has a defective CMOS battery. Every time I put it on the date shows as 1st January 2002 and the time as 00.00.01 am. I have to go through a small procedure by clicking on the time icon in the bottom left corner of the screen and setting the correct date or time. This takes me a few seconds every morning but it also means that throughout the day I remember what the day and date is and never fumble. You should try disconnecting your CMOS battery. It will give you a good daily mental exercise - and a better sense of time. -------- The column above appeared in Gomantak Times dated 18th June 2008 ====
