Make it Quick! Quick! Quick!

Instant gratification is what everyone seems to hanker after today. You only have to achieve your aspirations, somehow!

July 11, 2016 10:46 pm | Updated 10:53 pm IST

We live today in a world of fast food, express delivery, time-bound programmes, and so on. We always want to be ready to go, and hit the road running. Recently my grandson aged three hit an iPhone on the floor angrily since he could not get his favourite song on YouTube soon enough upon pressing. Why are we in so much of a hurry?

I am reminded of Albert Einstein, who was said to spend 55 minutes defining a problem and five minutes finding the solution.

Today we don’t know whether there is problem at all, and if so what the problem is. We never realise that the quality of the solutions will be directly proportional to our understanding of the exact nature of the problem. Children, why even adults, need instant gratification. In two minutes thy want noodles, and they want bajji mix or dosa mix that take as many minutes to prepare the said dishes, too.

Sans effort? It is as if there is no need anymore to learn poetry, or study different interpretations and comments. There is no need to understand key concepts of mathematics, physics and chemistry. You only have to achieve your aspirations, somehow.

Haste induces fear, that is now taken as the normal. Life is not a series of projects to be completed in quick succession. It is just the opposite of the creative mind, which is fearless and expansive, capable of bringing out better results.

Many people grow impatient when the Internet is slow: they just can’t wait for a couple of seconds for a page to load. They can neither wait for the train to arrive nor the aircraft to take off. They can’t tolerate their own child being cranky and tend to even hit the baby. When we take medicine for any disorder, it needs some time to act. We should actually have a warning on the packages of drugs: “Negative effects include a need for instant gratification and loss of patience.”

Today’s children, born after the arrival of the smartphone on a large scale, are wired for pronounced impatience. This resembles the ‘chicken and egg’ situation. In this fast world, websites are designed in such a manner that the customer is not made to wait even a second longer than necessary and is provided with all essentials in one go. Otherwise, another website is waiting to grab him or her.

We have seen the days when parents were eagerly waiting for months for a post card to arrive with a crucial piece of information. Now we need quick results. ‘Delivery the same day’ is the promise put out by some e-commerce companies. People don’t even mind paying extra to satiate their impatience. People don’t wait even for two seconds for the video to load in a device.

Where impatience helps But undeniably, impatience helps on certain occasions. Though enjoying every last bit of food is what is preferred, you can’t do the same if the restaurant is about to close.

You have to munch and gobble the tasty food as quickly as possible. You have to be fast in the examination hall to score the maximum marks, even when your handwriting is not very beautiful and perfect. While you are in a foreign country, you learn the foreign language for essential communication. You cannot then be dwelling on learning all the tough grammar rules. The process should be very quick, to make you understood and intelligible. Some important words here and there, ‘Welcome’, ‘Thank You’, expressions for seeking directions, and so on, may make you fit to get along in an unknown land. Perfection, tense-matching and syntax structure need not necessarily take you very far.

A woman will be considered wise if she can prepare a simple, quick lunch within 15 minutes with the available ingredients. In certain situations, the one who prepares expansive and delicious varieties in 90 minutes will actually be at a disadvantage.

‘Slow and steady’ winning the race may not be entirely applicable in today’s life. Whether the advance of technology has resulted in the ‘quick-quick’ tendency, or whether it has stemmed from the social compulsion for such sweeping developments, is debatable.

A lot of really valuable things take time. A pregnant woman cannot expect a full-grown and healthy child before 37 weeks.

Examination or election results cannot be announced immediately. Plantains take nearly four months to grow to maximum size.

A child can crawl, walk, talk and go to school only upon reaching certain stages. Some diagnostic results take time to be known. Investments in stocks and shares need some time to yield results. Even idli batter takes eight hours to ferment.

Is it not therefore wise to set aside our desire for instant gratification and move towards the best in life, that takes time and effort? Patience is worth the wait, since the pleasure we derive will be beyond compare.

vathsalaj@yahoo.com

More Open page stories on the web

>All those diet regimens and some truths

>Behind public apathy in violent crimes

>The downside of all those devices

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.