All of you must have heard about GMT, which stands for Greenwich Mean Time. But have you heard of NST? If not, then you should know about it. NST stands for Nepali Stretchable Time. It is a unique type of time, which can be elongated as long as you want. It greatly differs from the time of other nations by its exceptionally elastic property and is slower than the standard Nepali time by an hour or sometimes even more than that.

If anyone calls you at 10:00 am, you’ll still be punctual even if you reach there by half past ten or eleven. NST has been greatly beneficial to those who are used to doing their work behind schedule. No one needs to be on time, be it commoners, celebrities or politicians. A program scheduled at a certain time commences late just because the chief guest follows NST.

A cabinet or parliament meeting is also touched by this stretchable time and never starts on time. The same applies in the case of conferences, competitions, opening ceremonies or any other events and even in our day-to-day life.

Even if we call a friend at time, we have to waste at least half an hour waiting for him/her. On the whole, everyone follows NST rather than the usual time.

This has already turned into a habit of every Nepali and thanks to this habit all of us have developed the quality of patience. One can easily wait for an hour or two without getting annoyed. Above all, NST has so much elasticity that it has crossed the boundary of 24 hours and has given rise to the custom of saying “tomorrow”. If anyone is asked to complete any task or bring he or she will say tomorrow.

Now, a question arises, “Should we accept this stretchable time as a part

of our lives and get used to it or reform our habits and amend ‘Nepali Stretchable Time’ into ‘Nepali Standard Time’?”

— Sudhir Shrestha, Class IX, South Point Boarding High School