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• Monday, March 05th, 2007

watch a movie at the dollar theatre. We were planning to go to 3.30pm show so we went to the pizza buffet place for late lunch before the movie and we headed to the theatre around 3pm after some window shopping. We got our tickets and waited for the the previous show to get over so we can go inside.

It was almost 3:25pm in my watch and we thought may the ticket counter guy didn’t know we are waiting so we headed inside the theatre. The movie is already running. I got frustrated and went to the ticket counter and asked. We been waiting for almost 20mins and you didn’t tell us that movie started. He said the previous show is still running and its only 2:30pm and you have another one hour for the next show. What ?!! Yep, its 2:30pm and time change today. I was really embarrassed. Anyway, we went for another round of window shopping for 45 more mins and got back for the show on time.

I came to know about this Daylight saving time when I first landed in Boston during Feb month. After a month, I was told to change my time ahead and I was totally confused inspite of the already confusing different time zones in USA. A Guy who landed from a country which follows on time zone all around and one time all year around. Its definitely damn confusing.It gets more worse when you are traveling around the world and hitting different part of the world who follows different day light saving schedules.

I was like what the heck they are doing?! They have different time zones to start with and they change the time every year which I never done in my life time. I felt like these guys are stupid to change the time without me realizing the total benefit. Its a real teaser sometimes if you are not up to-date on the local happenings. It took me a while to get it researched and get it synched in.

It was the second time it was happening to me. It happened to me once in 2001 when I went to the dance program 1hr late thinking its still 8pm but it was actually 9pm DST. Is this Daylight saving time really useful or just confuses people make them feel embarrassed aat times?!!

Looks like the main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called “Summer Time” in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Daylight Saving Time gives us the opportunity to enjoy sunny summer evenings by moving our clocks an hour forward in the spring. Just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too have we discovered a simple way to get more from our sun.

OK!! Then why was it not practised in india?! It seems that if you live near the equator, day and night are nearly the same length (12 hours). But elsewhere on Earth, there is much more daylight in the summer than in the winter. The closer you live to the North or South Pole, the longer the period of daylight in the summer. Thus, Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time) is usually not helpful in the tropics, and countries near the equator generally do not change their clocks. That seems to be logical.

The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin (portrait at right) during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, “An Economical Project.” But they actually started following in the World War I all over the world. There were lots of confusions on when to set the time ahead and how to set for a state which has different time zones. There were lots of acts passed during the period 1966 to 1972. Finally, In 1972, Congress revised the law to provide that, if a state was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt the part of the state that was in one time zone while providing that the part of the state in a different time zone would observe Daylight Saving Time.

The Federal law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April. Under legislation enacted in 1986, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. began at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ended at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November.

So beginning in 2007, most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time. In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

I think Daylight Saving time has its own advantages in regard to more sunlight, energy savings and much more. But it is confusing at times until you get used to the routine life and keep updated with local happenings to avoid any embarrassment.

Do we ever had an embarrassing moment because of daylight saving time change ?!

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