Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow: कल

Yep. That's it. Future? कल. Past? कल. Just two little letters: क and ल. Kal. That's the only word you need to know. Simple, right?

Well, sure. Maybe for you.

But for me, wrapping my head around the Indian concept of time in which everything is now, and also forever, doesn't seem so simple. Take a look at the Indian word for 'today': आज (aaj). It seems harmless at first. But when you realize that Hindiphones say "aaja" for both "come here" and "right now", it casts a different slant of light on the western concept of time.

Right here. Right now. Right here. Right now. Will you wake up to find your love's not real?...

Sorry, is Fatboy Slim ruining this for you? Moving on.

******

In India, the cyclical cognition of time seems to lend itself to the "now and forever" rhythms of rural agrarian life. In America, we have a forward-backward perception of time. You put your past "behind" you and you look "forward" to your future. We call it a 'linear' cognition of time, though it doesn't seem to make much sense these days when everything new and modern appears to be moving up. Think: skyscrapers, airplanes, hell - even space rockets. It makes you wonder why we talk about time horizontally at all.

(This is where a little ancient Greek comes in handy.)

The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is the word you're likely familiar with, though its conception is really incomplete without kairos. Chronos refers to chronological, or sequential time. Kairos is the time in between, an undetermined moment in which something special happens. While chronos is quantitative, kairos is more qualitative. In the Indian interpretation, you are suspended within the moment. In the western interpretation, you experience moments of suspense.

It makes you begin to rethink your relationship with time, doesn't it?

*****

Right here. Right now. Right here. Right now. Right here here here here here here here here...

A rough translation of this song into Hindi would be one long "AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

*****

Okay. Love you all, happy twenty-ten, etc. I feel like I'm not finished with this topic, but I don't quite know what else to say at the moment. I'll come back to it eventually.

[PS. For whatever reason, कल also translates in noun form as 'doohickey', according to my dictionary, and as 'gross' when used as an adjective. What in the world is a doohickey? Does anybody know what that means in English?]