My work, My Pleasure

My 21 year old son Abhishek has just returned from office. His first sentence upon entering home is, "What a life!!, wait for the working week to get over and the weekend to arrive. After the weekend is finished, the same routine getting repeated”. Shocking, coming from a young lad who has an enviable job with a multinational company that pays him a salary his peers would strive hard for. He has fixed day-office timings (no extended hours) with offs on Saturdays and Sundays. His performance at the job has been par excellence inviting commendation from his superiors. Thanks to his versatility, he gets all the challenging assignments. To sum up – he has an excellent quality of life. That he is exasperated and frustrated is beyond my comprehension.

My spouse, Savita is an efficient housewife. She goes through the chores of the house - cooking, washing, cleaning with clockwork precision on a daily basis. Twenty hours a day, seven days a week. The chores are repetitive without any variety. The clothes have to be washed in the machine using the same quantity of detergent and with the same process. The aloo ki sabzi or the parantha or the chawal have to be cooked in the same manner every time. In fact, the family members would dislike if they are cooked differently. The inventory control is perfect (never have we been made to eat a colourless dal because kitchen has run out of haldi). There is so much of perfection in all her activities that sometimes I wonder if she is run by a microprocessor. She, in fact enjoys every bit of it. If a family member decides to skip a meal she is furious and if some guests drop in, it will be her pleasure to serve them. She never complains of monotony or of having to lead such a predictably routine life.

My mother and brother follow the Brahma Kumaris school of thought. They attend their daily class regularly without fail. They never feel bored with it or look for variety. They would love to travel large distances to attend these classes which have a similar content every day.

So why does Abhishek feel like having been held captive to a routine by his employment? In any case what does he do on the weekends? Does channel surfing on TV most of the time? Occasionally goes for a movie? Goes out for dinner with friends once in a while?

Why does Savita not feel having been held captive by her life. On the other hand she finds the tasks of her routine quite captivating. Without it she will probably lose her persona.

Why do mummy and Alok enjoy the same way of life day in and day out and feel quite exhilarated about it.

I am reminded of a discourse from Swami Chinmayananda in which he says, “If a person’s job involves manual labour like shifting some heavy material or a task wherein a lot of running around is required, one would complain of hardships and feel tired at the end of it all. However, when the same person participates in a game of football, or goes to the mountains on a trek, he feels elated after the same degree of hardship. Here the hardship is “achieved” voluntarily, whereas in the former case it happens because of an assigned task. A night without an A C may be intolerable but we may travel large distances to spend the weekend camping in a tent where there is not even a fan.

So is it all about how you view your life and the attitude with which you participate in the activities that it has on offer?

Or, is it about the extent of belongingness that you may have for the institution? For Savita the institution is her famiy, for Mummy and Alok it is the Brahma Kumari Ishwariya Vishwavidyalaya and for Abhishek it is his employer company.

Or, is it about undertaking an activity as a duty or as a pleasure?

I look forward to comments from all those who read it. It will be my pleasure!