Sarode's blog: Total Timepass is also work!

“Time was my only material.” — Tehching Hsieh, pioneer of durational performance art.

(Yes, you might need to Google how to pronounce that name 😄)

Let me digress a bit and share what happened the other morning —
Total Timepass!

My wife asked me to keep an eye on the beaten rice spread out on the terrace to dry in the Sun.
My only job? To shoo away pigeons and squirrels.

So, I found a shady spot, leaned against the wall, stretched my legs, and decided to read a brand-new book that had arrived from Amazon the previous day.

Just as I opened it, a neighbour appeared with a bucket of wet clothes to hang out.
A few friendly words later, another neighbour arrived — he had a bag of leftover crackers from last Diwali to sun-dry!

We chatted about everything and nothing.

After a while, they left.
The terrace grew quiet.
I sat there, lost in thought — and somehow, Tehching Hsieh came to mind.

Then the light dimmed. A cool breeze brushed past.
Dark clouds raced to cover the Sun.
I quickly gathered the beaten rice before it rained.

And then it struck me —
What had I really done all this while?
Doing time? Passing time? Wasting time?

That’s exactly what Tehching explored in his one-year performance pieces — the meaning of time, work, and existence itself.

He once said:

“Free thinking is the essence. Free thinking is like the heartbeat.
You can’t break it down. You can’t control it.
You can’t stop thinking. Nobody can force anyone to unthink.
Heartbeat is work. Survival is work. Free thinking is work.”

That morning, while “doing time” on the terrace, I was actually doing free thinking — the very work Tehching speaks of.

And that reminds me of the book Total Timepass, by Narayan Kumar, which also nudges us toward free, unstructured thought.
I’ve read those stories week after week and had the privilege of hearing them directly from the author, too!

So yes, get back to work!
I mean… start your own Total Timepass and refresh your capacity for free thinking.

PS: I recently read a short article in Deccan Herald about Tehching Hsieh and was amazed by his art. While reflecting on it, three truths struck me — I’m still finding the right words to express them. Will share soon, along with what I’ve discovered about his incredible work.

Have you ever experienced moments where “doing nothing” actually felt like deep work?