This is not particular perl-ish, but I'd do that job with ps anyway...

Example:

ps -eo start_time,user,command | grep $USER | grep pppd | grep -v grep
+ | cut -d' ' -f1
[download]

gives you the start time of the pppd demon. The etime switch to ps gives you the elapsed time, but you need a more tricky cut (maybe perl ? ;-) to get it...

Regards...

Stefan