Everyone Has The Same 24 Hours In A Day — Not!

During one of my 3 hours long Instagram scrolling sessions, I came across the moderately popular everyone has the same 24 hours in a day quote. I registered it briefly and moved on. But something was different about this scrolling session. My mind, which would usually get occupied with the reel on screen, was on this occasion a bit distracted; it kept going back to that quote I had read. And for some reason, I was miffed.

Like the escapist I am, I tried to let it go. And after a few minutes, success!

But then again today, while listening to the cover of Billy Joel’s ‘Vienna’ by Ben Platt (if you haven’t heard his songs, PLEASE DO!) the quote came rushing back to me. It was prompted by these lines:

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It's alright, you can afford to lose a day or two (oooh)
When will you realize... Vienna waits for you?

Where I usually find myself singing along, relating HARD if I’m being honest, today, I felt a bit weird.

I won’t call it a realization because it wasn’t, but in that moment I remembered why this song wouldn’t be relatable to all. Because let’s be honest, Vienna ain’t waiting for everybody. And not everyone can afford to lose a day or two. Here, one word shines bright — Privilege!

And as the song came to closing, it struck me why I had been annoyed at the quote I had heard/read the other day; just like everyone doesn’t have a Vienna on standby, everyone in fact doesn’t have the same 24 hours in a day!

I know it sounds ridiculous. Because in fact, we all do, but what the quote stands for is not only ableist as accurately pointed out in this blog, but it’s also profoundly blind to the hardships of others and the privilege of the person promoting the quote.

I admit, when you’re on the top it’s very easy to forget the steps that were laid out for you while remembering only the pain and effort you had to put in while climbing them. Which is why it’s even more important for us to have the cognizance and the ability to recognize when those same steps weren’t offered to others.

There was a time when discussing reservations I had mentioned how they should be extended on the basis of class, availability of resources, money, etc. And while I had stressed slightly on how caste still played a role and should be continued to be kept in mind, the points I put forth were weak at best. Not because there weren’t points to be made. But because I was ignorant, lazy to do the research, and was blind to my privilege — I had lived most of my life shielded from my own parents’ struggles due to their intercaste love story. And thanks to that, caste had never been a point of discussion during my upbringing. For all purposes, it didn’t exist. Only people did. And so I had the privilege of ignorance, putting the onus on me to learn and grow.

Regardless of my own relationship with caste, I did grow to recognize how caste discrimination still existed as a vile part of our world. Even class and status didn’t solve it. And so, over time, my thoughts on reservations have come to change.

In addition to caste privileges that many people share, there are a number of other privileges that a lot of us fail to acknowledge. Maybe due to ignorance or maybe because it suits our telling of things. Nevertheless, these privileges offer choices and the ability to do things in the mentioned 24 hours that wouldn’t be available to many others.

It is here where the quote fails massively.

Yes, it is great to motivate some of us who might be wasting away opportunities and our own privileges. But we can’t ignore the fact that it promotes a blame-game culture where people are held at fault for the lack of their successes without taking into account their circumstances and the lack of growth opportunities.

While it’s easy to say that we all have the same 24 hours in a day, it’s easier to ignore what percentage of that day is left to a person to play around with or do as per their liking after dealing with all the necessities and obstacles that have been put in place. While some can make choices that are “productive” and help build a successful future, for many, a chance to make that choice itself has to be created from scratch. While we can say that everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, privilege has made it so that for some those 24 hours can be full of opportunities, while for others never enough.

The solution? I don’t have one. But maybe we should first acknowledge our privilege when highlighting our success stories and attempt to understand the extra mile others have to go to achieve the same. Maybe, that could be a good starting point.