Tick Tock

Have you looked at your charming alarm clock decorating your study table?

Oh!! Don't you have them anymore? Can understand, obvious, your cell phone is a multipurpose device with alarms, wake-ups, reminders et all. Or even if you had them, its the digital one which quietly counts the seconds, minutes and hours in Arabic numerals, easy to read and operate and wakes you up with a music or radio. You could also snooze them so that it wakes you up after a while.

But the wind-up spring driven ones have their own charm. Do you remember having seen them at your grandpa's bed side? No music, no radio, no funky wake-up tones, but a shrill jarring noise to wake you up with a shock. Well, that's the job of an alarm clock.

ALARM is the state of fear or anxiety and it comes from Italian all arme - all arm - a call to arms. This simple instrument just does that, shrieks and yells to wake us up :-) Just as nature does. Nature makes wide use of alarm signals - dog barks, monkey jabbers, bird shrieks......When were they pleasing to the ears? Alarm clocks just do that :-)

They have been around for decades, they neither need a battery nor electric power. They don't blackout nor do they lose energy. Its a charm to see the arms go round and round and the clock going tick tock tick tock all day long is soothing. When the world rests, when the birds and the animals sleep, the constant tick tock soothes you.

Found one at mum's today. Have been asking her to preserve it for me. The glass is broken, the button worn out, the keys rusted.....yet it fascinates, unperturbed by the times gone by, having been a silent witness to the changes. Having been around even before we were born, seen us grow, go to school, and then college.....It goes tick-tock....tick-tock.....tick-tock....without a glitch.


And when you have to wake up, its there at your service; lively and timely; monotonous, discordant yet somewhat welcoming wake-up call :-)

Here's my treasure.