This freaking fast and costly life

Happy Birthday in advance Smriti, doomsday or no doomsday....these days my mantra is Que Sera Sera....What will be, will be....I think as a society we are so obsessed with material successes that relationships and the feeling of community is diminishing

 

Dear Smriti,

What an eloquent way you brought up the subject of work/life balance. Many have written about this subject all over the world not in the most simplest way in which you defined the values of life. I remember in one of the James Bond movies, a woman says to 007, "There is no point in living, if you don't feel alive".

We believe that we are under pressure from the society to prove that we are capable. We also believe that we are under pressure to perform better than the expectation of the boss. Vitamin M (Money) drives us crazy. Sometimes, we leave parents to work in another country. We also leave children under care of someone else. We pressurize children to be a specialist in some profession we believe is going to be the future. Finally, after crossing all that busy life, we sit down and look at the album thinking what we could have done differently. I always believe that there is nothing wrong with the world but the world is nothing but what I perceive as the world.

I am a perfect example of what you discussed in this post. I faced humiliations for not being wealthy enough despite completing a decent professional qualification at an early age. That created a determination in my life to go after building an outstanding career and wealth building. In the process, I missed a lot of personal life with my wife and son. Luckily my wife was instrumental in opening my eyes and I did a mid-course correction. I left my son to pursue what he preferred to do and decided to work from home for the past 11 years. I am able to balance my work and life much better now. But I have to admit that despite working less hours, I am able to accomplish a lot more and I am able to enjoy life and work at the same time. What I recognized is by balancing work and life, my productivity improved and I am able to accomplish more in less time.

Thanks for writing this post and it is reassuring to me. I wish you many more happy returns of your birthday this month. The You Tube video you attached is hilarious.

Viswa

 

Hey Smriti, just few hours back, I cleaned the home, opened the windows to let fresh air in, put on some melodious music and was sipping hot ginger tea with DH sitting by the window watching the world go by and it felt great like this is life, this is being happy inspite of n number of future worries on our heads.

And I login to IL and read this post by you, made me smile, lovely thoughts.

 

Dear Smriti,

Don't know when exactly your birthday is! Is it by any chance on 12-12-12??! Never mind when, important is I wish you the very best of Health, Happiness, Wealth and oh yes, that Rose!!:birthday

At times, with all your 'looking back' posts, I think you may be around my age!:rotfl I know I know, you must be at least five generations younger to me! Yet, I note you like to dwell in the romantic past and I find that so cute!

When one is laid back and don't sweat it out to earn those big bucks, they get labelled as 'failures'!! That's not appreciated in this world. World is on a fast track because there is so much the world offers today and you need those crisp green notes to be able to afford them. I cannot blame them and at the same time, they have raced past some free gifts on the way. When my friend returned recently from India and looked real cool in a very mod blouse, I complimented her. She turned to me with lips drawn downwards and said, "It cost me 900 Rs"!! I know of days when a Kanjeevaram sari costed that much!
'Those were the days my friend'.............

Congrats on being nominated to FP by Anitap!

L, Kamla

 

Oh!! Smriti, how true!! Indeed, I think often exactly like this. when my neighbour complain me saying "Your daughter is teaching our children also to get wet in rain, and play in rainwater. Rainwater is so dirty, and she is making others also get dirty along" I used to think, "Why the hell that they are so particular about not getting dirty, once in a while its fine. And, in this city, it hardly rains a month in whole year, and if we keep away those pleasures of putting paper boats in water, what else are we giving them" So I tell my neighbour, "I am absolutely fine when my daughter do that once in a while" She used to stare at me as if she has seen someone released from a mental hospital just now. But I am absolutely fine. I just allow my daughter (infact I actually pull her) to get wet in rain, and then give her complete bath, and amke her dry herself so that she don't catch up cold.

I also feel very sorry, when my daughter is upset whenever it rains that she is not having any chance to see a rainbow. That time, I really feel to run away to a village for sometime, so that she may get a chance to see rainbow. How sad!! I feel they enjoy little pleasures, but in our big race, we are crushing them unintentionally.

 

Very nice write up. Sometimes I also feel like this. Our society is obsessed with all these material things. We are also not ready to slow the pace because of trying to show what we can achieve. In the end we will miss all the valuable moments in our life and there will be no option to undo.

 

Hi Smriti,
Wonderful post. And Happy Birthday In Advance.