ISN’T it hard to believe that a little word like ‘People’ covers humans of all ages, the past, present and future? It also includes the people of all age groups from newborn babies to youth to middle-ageless to seniors and beyond. It also applies to all genders.

Kids playing with little toy figurines also refer the figures as people. The constitution of the United States begins with the words “We the people...”. Although the word is small, people are great and I feel honored to write about them.

The people I’m writing about may not be that ‘great’ because I write about people I know, people I remember and people I care about. To tell you the truth, I care about all the people. I’m always on their side. Why shouldn’t I be? I’m as much ‘people’ as they are! If you feel that I’m making fun of them, it’s only because I’m trying to write humor, and in humor you are permitted a little exaggeration as you are permitted to be a little fashionably late if you are a guest of honour.

Today, I’m writing about people who are fashionably late. The ribbon you are going to cut is suspended. The bride waits for you, trying hard not to pass out. The press and the media are still there perspiring. Everybody is trying to guess the reason as to why you are late: maybe the flight was late, or, worse still, was hijacked and the plane is landing somewhere thousands of miles away right at this moment. Maybe a serious accident occurred and you are taken to a hospital or some tragedy that could not be avoided but cannot be made public, like you had an attack of diarrhea. Remember, to err is human. It’s also human not to confess it.

Nobody knows the real reason. There are as many speculations as there are people waiting for you to arrive. Nobody guessed that you, being the guest of honor, wanted to arrive just a little late. You think that it is your right and you are right to avail the privilege.

You are late for a meeting if it starts before you have arrived. You are late for a wedding if the bride goes down the aisle before you. You are late at a show when it starts before you are seated. But when nothing happens until you arrive at the scene, then you are only fashionably late.

It tells you how important you are. The genuine beauty of being a little fashionably late is that, if you are real important, even if you are desperately late, the people waiting for you try to be in good humor. They give you an impression that you are not so late after all, though their gestures might tell you otherwise. It boosts your ego to be able to keep people waiting and reminds you of the days when you waited for others and hated it. It is sweet revenge to let other people kill time for you as you once did for others. But if you are born in a country where time is supposed to be money, you cannot be real late even if you try.

However, there are countries where time has no value. So it does not count. In these regions, people can be unreasonably late for any reason or no reason at all. The golden rule in the meetings and appointments is who needs whom. The president of a country can make a prime minister wait. A general in the army can make a brigadier wait. An interviewer can make an interviewee wait for as long as he wishes.

There are occasions when people come traditionally late. The people who come early or at the time given in the invitations of weddings are desperate to find that there is nobody to receive them except people who are arranging the seats. Next time, they make it a point never to go on time in a wedding reception. It happens that the reception announced at seven starts at nine, and the dinner promised to be served at nine is served at midnight. Very few people complain about it because, after all, it is a big occasion — where several hundred people are involved. The attitude most of the time is: what’s the hurry? After all they are going to be married only once in their life- time. It is considered rude to start anything important till all the significant guests are there. Sometimes these important guests arrive wretchedly late.

When I have to wait in a function, I usually start writing my journal. I wrote a poem the last time I was kept waiting. I would like to share the poem with you.


When somebody is late
Some other body has to wait
You wait and wait
Walk from gate to gate
Change your moods
Change your gait
Your heart gets heavy
As pressed with weight
When you decide
To cancel the date
Here comes the person
Who is fashionably late!