Have a Life! : Blog # 127

Have a Life!

                    I remember talking to one of my uncles who retired as a Professor. During the conversation, he told “I wish I had a Life!” He went on to add as to how engrossed he used to get in his work and how oblivious he became to what was happening outside his area of work. The reality struck on the next day after his retirement. There was no meeting to go to, no phone calls to attend, no agendas to achieve. He regretted how he became more and more confined to his work that he began living around the demands of his work and not how he wanted it to be!

            Of course work is an important part of our life. But more often than not, we miss out the “part” aspect in that. Many a time, we mistake work for life itself. We begin surrendering to the dictatorship of work and our preferences begin to take a backseat.

There is this colleague of mine, Avi who is pursuing his interest in music in spite of our hectic work schedule. He has put together a band and is performing even. How many of us have that kind of grit? Forget about chasing one’s own dreams, how many of us take an effort to do things which makes oneself happy?

For many of us, salary is just a mobile message that shows up at month end. Yes, we are happy that we are living on our own and are building a future with it. But does the figure that show up make us happy, apart for the first couple of months may be? Ever wondered why is it so? It is because we are cherishing the experience of work that we are doing and not the transaction that happens at the end of every month.

Extrapolating that thought, the work that we do is just the transaction that we need to undertake to go through the experience that is Life. The moment we give undue importance to transaction, we will miss out on the journey of Life.

Work wise, there are very few people who get to do what they really like doing. That is a reality and we need to live with it. But who is stopping us from chasing our dreams? The work will be demanding and we will have to find time for doing things which brings us contentment or at least happiness. Years down the line, the day you decide to stop working, work being hectic will not be a good enough excuse to convince yourself that you did not do all those things you wanted to do with your Life.

Wouldn’t the canvas of life look much better with hues of various attempted ambitions than one with just a wide grey stroke of work alone?

                                                                                                  Arun Babu.                                                                        

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