Today's posting is going to raise a few eyebrows, I know.

Give me one good reason why it is necessary to put the clock forward by one hour in spring in order to shift one hour of sunlight from morning hours to evening hours and call it Daylight Saving Time. Think hard. By doing that are we really prolonging the period during which the sun is up in the sky? Certainly not. Day and night happens because the earth rotates around its own axis (once in every 24 hours) and season change happens because the earth revolves around the sun once in every 365 days and 6 hours, and because the earth's axis is not vertical but it is tilted 23.5 degrees from the vertical line. While revolving around the sun the hemisphere of the earth that comes nearer to the sun gets warmer and we call that season 'summer'. The other hemishere of the earth at this point is farther from the sun and therefore remains cooler and we call this season 'winter'. Because of the tilt of the earth, during summer months the days are longer (because during earth's rotation this part of the earth gets sunlight for longer period of time), and during winter months the days are shorter (because during earth's rotation this part of the earth gets sunlight for shorter period of time).

So by turning the hands of the clock forward in spring what we are really doing is making the mornings shorter and evenings longer. We are not really prolonging daylight hours. We are not really saving anything. We are just shifting more daylight towards evening by cutting short the mornings. So the name Daylight Saving Time itself is erroneous. Daylight Shifting Time would have been a better name.

Now back to my original question. Why is it necessary to actually change the clock in spring and revert it back to normal (or Standard Time) in fall? If for any reason we want to have more daylight time available even after we leave work, why can we not change our schedule? We all can come to work one hour early and leave one hour early from April to October or during the time when Daylight Saving Time is observed. When I say 'we', I mean the entire country or region observing DST can change their work schedule and leave the clocks alone! How difficult is it for a business or office or bank or educational institution or any facility to announce their business hours in a format similar to the one shown below?

Those of you who are thinking what is the harm in changing the clock, my answer is, aside from the inconvenience of changing so many clocks twice a year, NOT changing the clocks can bring better harmony throughout the world. Making a fixed time long distance call from one country/region to another can be much simpler. For airline operators publishing the time table of their different flights can be MUCH MUCH simpler. Basically, anybody who is interested to find out when it is x o'clock here what is the time there, all he/she needs to know is the time difference in hours and minutes between the two places and make the simple calculation. There is no need to consider what date it is, whether any one of the two places observe DST (if so when does the DST begin and end), and are the two places in the same side of the equator?

Those of you who are still saying, "I don't get it", I am happy to present the following information about Daylight Saving Time:

• Not all countries of the world observe Daylight Saving Time. (Most countries do NOT).
• Not all industrilized countries observe DST. (Example: Japan does not).
• Not all regions/states/provinces of the same country observe DST. (Example: In United States Arizona, Hawaii, and Indiana do not).
• Some parts of the same region/state/province may observe DST, while other parts do not. (Example: In United States Arizona does not observe DST but Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona does).
• Different countries start and end DST on different dates.
• Not all countries begin and end DST on fixed dates. (Example: Israel).
• DST starting and ending dates are not real dates. They are like last Sunday of March or first Sunday of April, etc. So the actual dates vary from year to year.
• Different countries start and end DST on different times. (Example: 1 a.m., 2 a.m., etc.).
• In USA, DST starts and ends at different times in different time zones. In the European Union, DST begins and ends at the exact same moment in all time zones.
• Since seasons are exactly opposite in southern and northern hemisheres, countries which observe DST in southern hemisphere do so from November to March!

  Whew!

  Look at the bigger picture. Think globally. Think of the international businesses. A New York broker wants to know what is happening in Tokyo or HongKong or London when the stock markets open there. He needs to place a phone call to each of these cities at 8 a.m. their local time. Would he not have a easier time if DST did not exist?

  It is mind boggling how large international airline companies issue a ticket say, from London, England to Auckland, New Zealand months in advance and give you a travel itinerary showing accurate flight arrival and departure times for the plane which stops at three cities before arriving at Auckland. I know it is done by computers. But somebody had to do some input to the computer first, before the computer could print out the itinerary. Whether it is the computer programer or the software manufacturer, I don't know. But somebody had to provide some data to the computer first. I am sure one of them is the DST information. And DST data is not an easy thing to provide (in fact, it is highly complicated) as you can see from the above information in bold.

  So write to your senator, or congressman (i.e., legislator). Ask him to abolish this unnecessary Daylight Saving Time. It is totally meaningless. Let us make the world a less complicated place to live in.

  If each country, or state or region is allowed to decide whether or not they want to have Daylight Saving Time, a time will come someday when one country will say instead of adding one extra day to February every leap year, we will add one extra day to April in our calender! Why does it have to be February? It is a question of making up one day every four years, right?

  Please voice your educated opinion. Write your comments. And remember, to get an additional hour of sunlight in summer evenings, if we really want that, we can just change our schedule. We all can start work early and leave early. There is no need to change the clock.

  A thought: Summer days are naturally long. Instead of making them artificially longer by turning the clock forward in spring, I think we should try to make the short winter days longer by turning the hands of the clock forward by one hour in fall. Turning the clock two hours forward in fall will be even better. What do you think?

  (Signed) Shoban Sen