Faltering Commitments

It’s a Saturday morning, actually noon now and I’ve been waiting for the carpenter from Big Bazaar to come and install our dining table. The appointment was for 10 AM and they have still not arrived. Not sure why people can’t respect time. My cousin is in Bangalore and I need to show her around. I’ve given away my old dining table already and so can’t even afford to just go and let the carpenter come at some other day…

Why can’t people respect time? Other’s time? This is not about Big Bazaar, or Bangalore, or South India, or India. This is a standard behavior across India I guess - that’s why the IST (India Standard Time) is sometimes also known as the ‘Indian Stretchable Time’!

Is it just about time, or about keeping commitments? We as Indians are very vocal (and often righteous) about keeping some commitments, like marriage - whether or not they are convenient. Why can’t we keep other commitments? Time commitments? Verbal business commitments (like “I agree to buy/sell at this price”, or “I agree to give you a raise if you do X” etc)? Why?