Punctuality- a dying virtue

In my career spanning almost 4 decades, I don’t recall a single instance when I reached office late. It was not that from day 1, I had the luxury of traveling by chauffeur driven personal vehicle. In fact, this luxury came quite late to me , after more than halfway traversing of the professional journey. I used all sorts of conveyances to travel between home and office – personal two wheeler, bus, cab, auto rickshaw, Mumbai local, shared taxis etc. Weather was not always conducive to smooth travel and there were days highlighted by heavy downpour, flooding. And why speak of only natural calamities- even problems created by humans also contributed to the occasional inconvenience- flash strike, break down, severe traffic jams! In spite of all the above, there were occasions when I reached home late, but I was never late to the office in the morning.

Towards the fag end of my career, I observed people giving scant regard to the sanctity of meeting start time and would amble into the meeting room 10-15 minutes after the commencement – sometimes even more! My penchant for punctuality embarrassed the congeners of the meeting no end, who later on started requesting me to come only after the meeting was about to start instead of sitting there and waiting for others to join! 

And why only office? I have never been late to airport, railway station, social get together, personal invites et al. I even hated reaching Cinema hall late: a cinema outing was not complete for me unless I watched all the ad films, trailers and documentary ( a compulsory in earlier days), including the national anthem. 

I think good handwriting, nail trimming, tucking the shirt inside, wearing polished shoes, standing in respect when a senior walks in, addressing seniors as sir or madam and above all punctuality are a few of the virtues that are ingrained in our psyche by our elders and Alma maters but may not be all that important in the changing milieu and context. But I would like to invite comments from my esteemed readers whether I am a lone crusader for the aforesaid causes and virtues or are these still relevant and important in the fast changing present times?