The hoax of daylight

Its becoming more and more difficult to keep a track of time. I have been in Sweden for nearly one and a half years, and I have still not gotten used to this whole extreme daylight or lack of it. Its as if God told the scandinavian guys... you can either have full days or full nights, please decide. And they said.. ok, so give us six months of full days and six months of full nights and God granted them that wish. Its wierd, I dont think I will ever get used to it.

2 days back we had the longest day in Sweden, when the sun sets and then immediately rises. For those who remember their geography, its called the summer solstice. I was working on a presentation with a colleague late into the night at my apartment, and went to see him off at around 12 o'clock and was shocked to see it wasnt really night!! I had completely forgotten about the summer solstice. Damn, it takes a lot to get used to this thing.

So basically its daylight all the time. So the usual story is this. I get carried away and get extremely engrossed in work. In my subconcious mind I am aware of the high sun telling me its still afternoon. And then I have a casual look at the watch and notice its 8.30 p.m. Get a big jolt. Cross check the time on the mobile phone and the computer, and with sigh look at the sun shining brightly outside and realize that I have been fooled yet again. It doesnt matter however many times this happens, my body clock just doesnt seem to adjust. It still maintains its stubborn Indian instinct.

Today however it was slightly different. I started the day early, had meetings from 8.30 am and was out of my apartment by 7.45 am. Had some really rigourous and tiring meetings, then 2 conference calls and finally a confrontation with one project manager in my team who was not working in an efficient manner and needed to be given a stern reminder. I was tired, irritated and felt like I could drop dead. I looked outside at the sun shining brightly and wondered, damn, it must be 6 pm and looked at my watch... it was just 3.30pm. I sighed and somewhere in my mind gave up on trying to keep a track of time. I think I will now follow the way my Swedish colleagues work, reminders on mobile phone and calendar notifications on my computer. As for today I decided to call it a day early... for a change. Yet it took me another 2 hours to wrap up things and get out of the office. But it felt nice to get home early. Or should I say at the normal time :)!