India, Jan. 3 -- Milestone alert! January 1 marked 120 years of the adoption of Indian Standard Time.

For anyone whose eyes quickly darted to their watch, it means that our national clock - five-and-a-half hours ahead of London, three-and-a-half hours behind Tokyo, and a full fourteen-and-a-half hours ahead of Alaska - has been in use since 1906. Midnight at 01-01-1906, to be precise.

And being precise is exactly the point. Because what is time, really? We wake up when the alarm rings; not when the sun rises. In much of the world, it's noon when the clock says it is; not necessarily when the sun is overhead. The sun is still at the centre of the solar system. But modern life revolves around the clock.

It might look elegant: hours, minu...