Hank
Among the several things that Indians and Italians have in common is their fine disregard for the petty tyranny of timeliness. Punctuality is said to be the politeness of princes. Staunch republicans that they are, Indians and Italians have liberated themselves from such monarchical observances.
In India, IST stands for Indian Stretchable Time, a concept of remarkable elasticity with an agreeable willingness to expand to accommodate one’s convenience. In Italy, time displays a similar obliging capacity to enlarge itself to encompass the schedule of trains that seem always ‘in ritardo’ or delayed.
However, Indians and Italians have different takes on what time of day it is, or even which day has gone by and which is the day to come.
In India, ‘kal’ can refer to both yesterday and tomorrow, the distinction becoming clear only within the context in which the word is being used.
In Italy, yesterday is ‘ieri’, and ‘domani’ is tomorrow. But where Italians differ most from Indians is with regard to ‘oggi’, today in Italian, and the appropriate salutation for it.
Unlike the Indian ‘Namaste’, which is workable on a 24/7 basis so to speak, or so to greet, Italian distinguishes between the divisions of the 24-hour ‘giorno’.
The correct greeting for the morning is ‘Buongiorno’, good day. Buongiorno will get you by till some indeterminate point of no return when Buongiorno morphs into ‘Buonasera’, good evening.
