T he wall clock above the main door of my house, bought some 40 years ago, has been ticking non-stop and displaying the accurate time. Whenever I happen to visit my house in the village, my eyes invariably fall on the clock. It evokes in me a flood of memories.

In the 1960s and 1970s, only a privileged few had wrist watches and a few houses wall clocks. Common people were guided by the movement of the sun. In fact, nobody bothered about time, in those halcyon days.

During my school days, our government-run school had a wall clock. No teacher was seen sporting a wrist watch. If for some reason, the clock dysfunctions, the headmaster used to decide the time by looking at the position of the sun and shadows. Then he would order the peon to strike the bell.

In those days of low literacy, a

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