Dhaka, April 13 -- Life is a ceaseless voyage over time - from the cradle to the grave; but the starting point of the cosmic phenomenon called time is still a mystery. Some people claim that it started with the big bang of creation. Others hold the view that time has no beginning or end, or in other words it is eternal. In the poem "Time, You Old Gypsy Man", the poet Ralph Hodgson even pleads with time - personified as a restless gypsy, to pause and stay for just one day, offering lavish gifts in return. Time flows ceaselessly like a stream, but does not hold on to anything for even a moment, let alone an hour, day, week, or month.

Humans have measured time in multifarious ways through the ages since the dawn of civilisation. They did th...