'Timepass' is India's way of lying flat

In smaller Indian cities and towns, where opportunities for advancement are few and dwindling, the noun is catching on among disillusioned youth.

- Andy Mukherjee

In the quirky world of Indian English, "timepass" is of relatively recent vintage. Its first known appearance was in a newspaper article from 1982. But like "prepone" - the opposite of postpone - the word has gained currency because of its sheer efficiency.

"What are you doing nowadays?" a friend inquires. "Timepass," comes the reply.

The stuff that's filling up one's day is really of no importance; it's just helping pass the hours. The friend will know better than to probe any further.

In smaller Indian cities and towns, where opportunities for advancement are few and dwindling, the noun is emerging as something of a social and cultural phenomenon.

It bears resemblance to China's "lying flat" movement, which tells young people to opt out of the economic race and settle for mediocre workplace success and modest consumer fulfillment.

The 2010 book, Timepass: Youth, Class, and the Politics of Waiting in India, locates the concept in sociology: A generation of young people have a vision of the future but no capacity at their disposal to realize the goal. So they advertise their fruitless waiting "through a self-conscious strategy of hanging out," writes professor of geography Craig Jeffrey from the University of Melbourne.

The ennui of the unemployed youth that the author captured during his field work in Meerut - a once-thriving manufacturing hub near New Delhi - has grown worse. The respectable, middle-class careers they're waiting for have become elusive; the spread of artificial intelligence will make them rarer still.