{"id":1091,"date":"2020-01-30T20:59:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T15:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aradhanamishra.com\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2021-10-26T07:25:37","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T07:25:37","slug":"compromising-on-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aradhanamishra.in\/?p=1091","title":{"rendered":"Compromising on TIME"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Definition of ‘early morning’ acquires a new hue in the North East India.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Till six months back, Jaipur, Rajasthan was where I conversed with the sun, engaged in romantic rendezvous with the moon and awaited the dawn and dusk at the same time as the rest of India! What\u2019s the big deal about it!!! Dawn is dawn, somewhere around five in the morning or six, if it\u2019s winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I moved to North East; that too,\nfar east!  And boy, how everything\nchanged! Dawn is still dawn but at a different time when compared with the\nWestern part or even the Northern part of India. The sun rises here as early as\n4am IST, in summers and when the rest of India barely gets the glimpse of sun\nat around 7 am in winters, we are at loggerheads with it even before six!!!!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It certainly caught my body unaware.\nWhile the sun shone brightly at around five, my body wouldn\u2019t respond to it\ntill seven or eight, despite being a morning person! It felt like jet lag,\nsomething that one experiences after having travelled through different time\nzones as body takes times to adapt to new biological rhythm, which requires it\nto attune its physiology as per the local solar cycle. The rising and setting\nof the sun impacts our body clocks or circadian rhythm.  As it gets darker in the evening, the body\nstarts to produce the sleep hormone melatonin, which helps people nod off. Even\nthough, I am an \u2018early to bed\u2019 person, it didn\u2019t feel great that my eyelids\nwould start feeling heavy from six in the evening. Now this was a new benchmark\neven for me!!!! However, I admit, in this side of the world, it feels like\nnine, with sun having already set at four! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon enough though I adjusted to the\ncalling of new circadian rhythm of my body and now find myself up and about at\nfour in the morning. But then realized that adjusting to this new cycle was not\nthe only challenge. There were worldly concerns too, to address. The offices,\nmarkets, schools; they all start at the same time as their counterparts in the\nrest of India, with one catch though, when it\u2019s 9am for the rest of India, it\u2019s\nactually 11 am ( as per the longitude position) in the eastern India. Also, since\nthe sun sets in early; in effect, we are left with a very short functional day.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now here, before I proceed further, let\nme introduce you to some perspectives on time and how only one time zone,\ndespite the vastness of our country, is affecting lives here in the North east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time Zones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earth is divided into 360 vertical lines or the\nlongitudes. A shift in every longitude gives a time difference of four minutes;\nso, the planet is divided into 24 time zones. Twenty-four hours of a day are\ndivided by 360 degrees — a complete revolution of the earth on its axis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, a distance of 15 degrees on the map amounts to a\ndifference of one hour, and one degree on the map amounts to four minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longitude is the angular distance between a point on any Meridian and the prime meridian in Greenwich. The time at Greenwich is called as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now putting that in Indian\ncontext, our country\u2019s West to east distance stretches to almost 3000\nkm equivalent, extending from 68\u00b07’E to 97\u00b025’E,\nwith the spread of 29 degrees, which amounts to almost two-hours from the\ngeographical perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, when it is 6 AM in Ahmedabad it is equivalent to 8\nAM in Itanagar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presently IST is taken from longitude passing through\nAllahabad and is set at UTC (Universal Time Co-ordinated) plus 5:30 Hrs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming back to the Northeast, the sun rises here as early as\nfour in the morning and in winter it sets by four in the evening. By the time\ngovernment offices or educational institutions open, many daylight hours are\nalready lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, I am sure you must have got the gist of the problem. I\nmust add an interesting bit here. In North east, which is the tea bowl of the\ncountry, tea garden follows a different time, known as Chaibagaan time (Tea garden\nTime) which is one hour ahead of IST.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally the Chaibaggan time should be followed by the entire\neastern regions of India including Andamans and Nicobar, which means having two\ntime zones in the country and seems to be the most plausible thing to do. But\nthe central Govt has consistently been resisting this demand, citing various\nconcerns which include chaos in Railway\/Airline timings which may lead to\naccidents, difference in office\/bank timings etc. Really!!! In today\u2019s times,\nwhen India is one of the leading tech prowess, these arguments do not hold much\nwater. Can\u2019t we really address this issue, if we as a nation could withstand\nthe changes brought about with the GST bill and demonetisation! So, no I am not\nbuying this excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterall, USA\nhas 9 time zones and there are 3 time zones in Australia. Indonesia also has 3\ntime zones, while Brazil has 4 time zones! Historically even India had three\ntime zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to understand the more believable reason. May be,\ngiven the diversity and unique constitution of our country, we are bound by a\ndelicate thread of ideas, cultures and values and having one time zone is one\nof them, giving a sense of unity. Given the turbulent times we live in, this\nseems rather logical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the other concerns not be addressed then?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per a research, done by Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W young, for which they won the 2017 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine- plants, animals, and humans, adapt their biological rhythm <\/a>so that it is synchronized with Earth’s revolution. And it\u2019s this intricate balance, when maintained, produces the best result. Economical (   according to a study by a research scholar at Cornell University, published in January 2019,  India’s single time zone causes it to incur annual human capital costs of about $4.1 billion (nearly 29,000 crore rupees) or 0.2% of nominal Gross Domestic Product) reasons besides, this surely calls for a rethink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nabout a compromise? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political compulsions might have its merit. But what\nabout adjusting the IST itself by half an hour! As per calculations, advancing\nIST by half an hour would result in saving 2.7 billion units of electricity\nevery year, and some respite from biological ill effects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose its very much doable. Hope someone in a position to change this, is listening. I am all eager to listen to what you have to say on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 Aradhana Mishra
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some informations have been obtained\nfrom – Arunachal Times, India Today, Hindustan Times, BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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