Sorry I'm Late
Punctuality. People
in Africa and India should not be too hard on themselves about being late. The whole world is late.
"Is the event 8 p.m.
or African time?”
“Is the party 9 p.m.
or Indian time?”
“Is the lunch 1 p.m.
or CP time?”
I learnt about Colored People’s time when I was in college
in the U.S. I laughed and told friends
about what we call African time. I
screened Albela, a Bollywood movie
starring Govinda and Jackie Shroff recently.
A character could not believe that an Indian journalist (Jackie Shroff) was
on time.
No problem. The bus
is late, so is the train. It’s even
funny in Canada where you sit at an event and the M.C. says, sorry, we are
running late. Ironic isn’t it? You are not running fast enough if you are
running late, are you?
Airlines don’t say their planes are flying late. They just say they are delayed, something you
don’t want to hear when you are in Dublin and you must catch a connecting
flight in London. Being late therefore
is GPT, global people’s time.
Nonqaba waka Msimang
is the author of Sweetness, a South African novel.
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