Timepass is Indian English. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries define it as “helping somebody to pass the time, especially doing something that has no aim or is not very useful.” Their example: “It’s a good timepass film.”
Twenty Hours in the Queue
At Tirumala, pilgrims who come for the general darshan of Lord Venkateswara, the Sarvadarshanam, wait in the Vaikuntam Queue Complex, “a series of inter-connected halls that leads to the main temple.” The temple trust gives the waiting time as about 18 hours on normal days and about 20 hours on peak days. The halls provide food, milk, tea, medical help and toilets.
On May 26, 2024, The Hans India reported that every compartment was full and that “the wait time to see Srivari is a staggering 20 hours.”
The Guest Without a Date
Atithi is the Sanskrit word for a guest. Sanskrit Magazine gives its original meaning as “without a fixed calendrical time.” The Purankosh describes the atithi as “the one who arrives without prior intimation, observing no particular or suitable date.”
The ancient etymologist Yaska traced the word to a different root, at, which suggests constant movement.
Days and Nights of Leisure
Ji dhoondta hai phir vahi fursat ki raat din, baithe rahen tasavvur-e-jaanaan kiye hue. The heart seeks again those days and nights of leisure, to sit lost in thoughts of the beloved. The couplet is from a ghazal by Mirza Ghalib.
Fursat means leisure or spare time, according to the Rekhta dictionary. Rekhta also notes that Gulzar used the line in his film Mausam (1975), in the song “Dil Dhoondta Hai.”
The Coffee House Adda
Adda is the Bengali word for long conversation among friends. The historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, in his essay “Adda, Calcutta: Dwelling in Modernity,” describes it as “the practice of friends getting together for long, informal and unrigorous conversations.”
In 1983 Manna Dey released the song “Coffee Houser Sei Addata,” about the adda at the Coffee House on College Street in Kolkata. Gauriprasanna Mazumdar wrote the words and Suparna Kanti Ghosh the music. The song remembers seven friends who met there. In a 2006 BBC Bangla poll, listeners ranked it fourth among the greatest Bengali songs.