I finished reading a book recently, ‘vertigo’ by ashok banker… set in mumbai a little over a decade back, it explores the existence of a guy in the initial stages of his career, battling career debacles, an alcoholic mother and a stormy love life… no, i am not good at reviews, coz i rarely read objectively, which i think, is absolutely necessary to write a good review, but the book is definitely worth a read…
there was a quote in it, which appealed a lot to me, and which, if delved into, could give a lot of clarity to our existence… ‘What i do is me, for that i came’…. we are what we do in life, from a personal as well as professional point of view.. to debate it further, in a perfect existence, our actions are such that there is hardly a difference between work and personal life…we enjoy doing it so much that it is no longer ‘work’, at least not in the way we treat it now.. imagine someone paying you for listening to music, reading, blogging, sleeping…yup, a very utopian kind of existence, but it sure would be wonderful, but i guess like all utopian theories, this one fails too, because i dont think there would be too many people who would enjoy cleaning public infrastructure, or pizza delivery, for that matter.. which i guess is why things are the way it is right now…
but its a good thought nevertheless, each of us doing exactly what we love to do, and therefore feeling that we have made a difference by our existence.. the first key being finding out exactly what it is that we would love to do.. and since that doesnt throw up too many practical answers (in the current scheme of things, that is) i suggest we get back to what we regularly do…
until next time, a post is what you came for, right? 😉
so u r saying, we live a predictably boring life….??? as if there’s a choice!
try ‘Vertigo’ at Mocha 😉
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btw, something similar is here…
Manu, you have tapped into an interesting topic here. I have often wondered abt this (and like many other things, am still sitting on the fence biting my nails and looking down at either side ;)) will it really be that great … if someone paid u to listen to music and read and write all day, (or me to eat, or pleo to fix templates) … i dont know … maybe we would then get bored of it. and what would we do for leisure? outside work?
That’s ‘karma’ for you!
We give birth astride the grave.
didn’t understand Poornima’s comment. anyway, this is a special comment because I couldn’t open it. your page was open from the past 2 hrs. After finishing some work, I clicked on the comment and it was blocked. I am opening it in a new window and commenting. Now,what was the comment? well, I wanted to say I am happy with my job after reading this. Yes, I came for a post and I got it. muaah ! (kissing the mouse)
deez: there isnt??
stone: read it… yup, quite like it…
prerona: true, but like any other work, u would either grow with it or grow out of it.. so if u do grow out of it, u move on.. and anyways the compartmentalisation (i think i made that up..lol) into leisure and work is not there in the utopia i talked of, right??
jw: nope, if thats so, then we have to create karma
poornima: i remember it as something from some play(?) .. a kind of paradoxical statement about time… ??
arunima: hmmm, the mouse gets the kiss for your job or the post i wrote?? 🙂
that will be a little confusing, wont it?
lol over the last lines.
question – what we enjoy to do now, is extra special cos we do not get to do it all the time. so say if we get to do it while we work as well as when we play, would it still hold the same novelty? maybe the sheen will wear off. maybe not. and maybe that is also why the theory might fail
what say?
prerona: why so??
parna: almost the exact lil discussion i am having with prero.. my point-u think ur only interests are x,y,z because those are the things u spend time on besides work… maybe if you were only doing x,y,z, u will realise you also have an interest in a,b,c.. wouldnt it help you evolve more??
hey loooooooooong time! sorry…
but where are the stories??? 🙁
You know, there is this very compelling theory that psychologists bandy about these days – that we love what we love only because it isn’t work. They’ve got lots of research to prove that when people start getting paid to do something they love, they like it less.
Isn’t that sad?
I’d much rather go with the earlier theory – that if we do what we love, we’ll never work a single day.
when we do our swadharma- it is never considered as work- rather play- an extension of ourselves. gettingpaid o not is a secondary matter.
I used to design webpages and cobble code together to make them work. I was paid for it. It started becoming more enjoyable, when I changed workplaces and started getting paid to do something else.
Once money gets into the picture, the deal demands your seriousness. And once anything gets serious, it stops being fun.
Which is why we love our work, but hate our job. If you love it in the first place, that is.
brood mode: stories once in a while 🙂
anjali: thats interesting.. but yes, i hope it isnt true ..
blokes: !!!! come down!! 🙂
pleo: hmmm,maybe you are right …
I am in the middle of reading Queen of Dreams and Maximum City..
And yeah as long as you live life with a purpose.. it is fun !! 🙂
Pallavi