Book Box: How to stop calculating time

On stealing moments back from a world that never slows

Dear Reader,

How to stop calculating time.

I need a minute to breathe. I need a minute to make a list of everything I need to do - to pack ten sets of clothes, my laptop, my tablet, my Kindle, each with its own charger for my trip to Manali. I need a minute to help the September baby with her to-do list - buy socks, get foreign exchange, and get a suitcase to replace the old one that has squeaky wheels.

I need a minute to get out my saree and mix and match one of my embroidered blouses and to lay this out before I get ready for the shareholders meeting I must attend. I need a minute to gather up the girls’ debris, the paper and plastics scattered all over the room as they sit about and try on budget clothes they have ordered from an online store.

I need a minute to centre myself - to move mentally away from our weekend trip to the Kochi backwaters to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday. Three days of being with the three generations of our family had amazing moments. There was the afternoon the family got together to put on a show for my mother - there was me reciting family favourite The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, my sister singing a song, my brother doing a standup routine, our children doing skits. All good; but too much emotion is overwhelming. I need a minute to recover.

I need a minute to breathe. I need a minute to sit down with the girls and enjoy just being with them, before the September baby goes away to spend the next two years studying, coming back only for tiny holidays in between. I need a minute to slow down. I need a minute to go get coffee. I need another minute and another and another to drink the coffee.

I need a minute to read the newspapers lying on the dining table - to read about twenty five percent tariffs and the trade wars and the story of the man arrested at Mumbai airport for smuggling hydroponic weed worth Rs. 14.5 crore.

I need a minute to rearrange my books - to collect the books on happiness scattered all over the house and put them together, and those on China for a China shelf. I need a minute to do the things that make me feel sorted.

I need a minute to think about how to slow down - to dip into Time Anxiety by Chris Guillebeau (for everyone who worries about not having enough time), to look through How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.

I need a minute to sit down to Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and The Brain at Rest by Dr. Joseph Jebelli (Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life) and The Art of Rest by Julia Hammond (How to find respite in the modern age, go for a good walk, have a nice hot bath) And finally I need a minute for The Pleasures of Leisure, to roam with Robert Dessaix through the world, from the addas of Calcutta to the fishing waters of Tasmania.

The Art of Rest.

Between it all I steal a minute to listen to the girls’ voices from the next room, a minute to remember this moment, before it slips into yesterday.

So I close my laptop. I sit on the floor among their clothing chaos. I ask about the weird online store that sells socks in sets of eleven. The September baby shows me a video that makes us all laugh until we're breathless. For five minutes, I stop calculating time and simply exist in it.

What about you, dear Reader, what do you need a minute for?

(Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or reading dilemmas, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com. The views expressed are personal)