Best time to write?

I’ve always wondered what could be the best time to write. When I’m involved in academic writing, it eventually boils down to the dreaded “deadlines” – so time could be noon or midnight, Friday afternoon or Monday morning – until I am at the point when I start worrying about the deadline, I don’t write, and when that dreaded deadline approaches, time or day doesn’t matter, I just write, I HAVE TO WRITE! Whether I WANT to write, or am in a MOOD to write is a different matter altogether.

Now writing (or rather musing) like this don’t have deadlines, and I don’t HAVE to write if I don’t want to. This “option” instead of “deadlines” to write means I rarely write – write proper I mean. Its always easy to find excuses not to write it seems, and I wouldn’t choose but the easier option. But then once in a while you are in a “mood” to write, you want to write, and you just sit down and start writing. This mood-to-write is a rarity these days, but there are days and times it occurs and I have to write even when I don’t have to. Its 0400 hrs as I type these lines, and I “want” to write. Doesn’t matter what I write, as long as I write something, I’ll feel good about “writing” (the process counts and not the outcome!).

…ing

I think there is a bank or some finance company with that name, ing (or ING in caps), but given what is going on with the financial sector this year, I don’t think I should venture into that area…better left that with the experts. What I had in mind when I typed those three letters on the title was more interesting (or may be mundane to many) “ing”s from the web world – such as google-ing, f’buk-ing (or facebook-ing to save myself from someone’s wrath!), flickr-ing, twitter-ing, and so on and so forth. Unconsciously it seems I’ve just listed these “ing”s on the order that I most use.

Google-ing has become ubiquitous with web use, and my online presence starts with opening gmail and ends with closing it! In between google is the preferred search engine, google news summarises the news, google ((btw, isn’t “google” supposed to have been added to dictionary officially? my spell-checker tells me I have made spelling error on it! And gives me suggested words like “googol”, “goggle”, “go-ogle” (my fav) and “go ogle”!!)) map provides the directions (and terrain and satellite images), google scholar searches for academic works, google calendar keeps me on schedule (sms notification is great!), and google documents mean i can open the ms office attachments without having to download them locally, and even edit them and send them back all from within the web browser! And it doesn’t end there either, I have google mail setup on mobile which means all I need is mobile network coverage, and I’m google-ing! Well, enough of google-ing now…

As seen somewhere in northern Ghana

On Ghanaian Timekeeping

I nearly had the title “On AFRICAN Timekeeping”, which wouldn’t have been fair for I hardly know any of Africa other than a few countries. Having now spent almost 12 months (7 last year and almost 4 this year) in Ghana during these two years, I think I can safely write a few lines on punctuality here. In fact having been on the receiving end of the lax attitude re: timekeeping most of the time (for 99% of the time I’d say – 1% of the time I admit I might have also become the perpetrator!), I feel obliged to write something on it

Being a Nepali, I am not new to having a different sense of timekeeping (as we so fondly call “Nepali Time” for a similarly lax attitude to punctuality in Nepal), but having lived in the “west” for better part of the last decade, I have become a bit impatient person when it comes to timekeeping, meaning I like to be on time and expect others to do the same. Coming to Ghana, and moreover living here for all these months has made me lower my expectations considerably when it comes to expecting others to be punctual, and occasionally I have arrived late (not on purpose though), however, almost always to find myself being earlier than others again!

Weekend in Tamale…

What an ordeal I had to go through to spend a weekend in Tamale! On Friday I finished my work in the village by mid-morning, hoping I would be picked up by a friend who was supposed to be passing by the place before lunch. As it happens so often here, I waited and waited without any sign of that friend coming or of any news about his whereabouts. Sent a couple of messages but no response, finally called around lunchtime when he said I should wait for him and that he’d be coming shortly. I had my lunch in the village, and continued with my wait. I was reading Dostoevsky’s The Gambler and had a couple of dozen pages left, which I finished not so long afterwards, but still no sign of my friend! Around 3pm I received a text message from him telling me he’d be setting off in one hour and should be there shortly afterwards. I decided to wait another hour and half (this was a big mistake as I later found out!). I waited for another couple of hours and he didn’t come. At around 5:30, I received a final text in which he said his company doesn’t allow him to use company vehicle after 6pm so can’t return to Tamale! I was just too tired and sick of waiting to even be angry with him. I just told myself I’ll get to Tamale that evening no matter what, and so waited for a local mini-bus or tro-tro.

This wouldn’t even tro-tro : A relic from the past in Gbimsi.