I love my lifestyle

Jun 28, 2005

Compared to other people I feel I live quite a relaxed, quite a privileged life, and I like it (gosh! so many I’s in a single sentence!). Today in the evening when I was sitting in the McDonald’s (facing Janpath) with my nephew, I saw how people kept getting business or office calls on their mobiles. A couple of them had their palm PCs adroitly settled on the tables to continuously check messages. A seemingly newly-married guy left his bejewelled wife thrice and went out to attend phone calls while she patiently browsed through the newspaper.

I didn’t receive a single call while we sat there for about an hour. I made just two calls to Alka to ask her if she wanted us to bring something home from there. And this is not a remote instance. I never remember myself being busy with a phone call from somewhere while Alka and I are out (although she would hastily add that it’s so rare when we in fact go out). On the other hand, I often see men clung to their cell phones while their wives are buying things or doing some other stuff. I pity people who spend busy lives. People take pride in living busy lives. So albeit I love the idea of fiddling with a palmtop or a smart-phone, I hardly fancy myself having one because I’ll never have so many complicated schedules that I’ll need processors to track them.

I wonder if people are really that busy or they just make a pomp and show of being busy. I had a relative who was expert in that. Once we had the misfortune of sharing a dinner in the same company, and 50% of the time he was running out of the dining hall to listen to his calls. It was as if the entire office couldn’t breathe without calling him. Do people really like being that busy? I think some do. It instils in them a sense of importance. They feel wanted, they feel indispensable. Yes, I think this is the right word — indispensable. They are so indispensable that they have to be within reach even when they are not in the office.

I’d hate to be indispensable. I like to be left in peace. When I’m with my wife, I hate to be disturbed, I HATE it. But then she reciprocates with the same zeal when I’m working.

So do I lose something if I’m dispensable? First of all, I couldn’t care less because being indispensable is not one of my priorities in life. Second, being self-employed has its own pluses. Nobody is breathing down my neck. I’m not answerable to anybody (this doesn’t mean I don’t do my work on time, or under perform). I’m not in the rat race. Financially, I’m not “the arrived one” but I’m reaching a comfort level that my friends working in various companies have taken years to attain. I work hard and I work smart, but I don’t put in long hours — I think only those people put in long hours who don’t have a life. Work should be done to support life, it should not become life.

I think on an average whenever I decide to work hard I work for 6-7 hours a day maximum, unlike most people who end up spending 11-14 hours (it might include commuting and unscheduled meetings). Once when I worked in GE, I got the first-hand experience of how incompetent most of high-flying project managers are. They actually take pride in spending long hours in the office, and some of them were dumb enough to declare how they missed various family occasions because they had important office work to attend to. The tragedy was, the poor guys actually didn’t have anything concrete to do other than creating hurdles for those who really wanted to do something meaningful. I couldn’t stay in that pool of uselessness for more than three months. They got fed up of my incessant nagging for newer assignments. And they were annoyed that I made it a point to leave office on time.

Almost the same amount I’m earning working on my own. There, I used to spend 8 hours in the office, 4 hours in commuting — a total of 12 hours. Add a few hours getting ready, coming home tired and spending some time of inactivity. So all in all I was spending 15 hours on my job. I can be a millionaire in a few years if I put in the equal amount in my own work, which of course I don’t aspire to do. These days I work for 6 hours and if I really need some more cash I’ll work for around 8 hours, but not more than that.

Once I was sitting outside, staring at the Gulmohar tree. It was a lazy, October afternoon, and it was perhaps a Wednesday. Silently, I kept admiring the beauty of the tree. Then I thought, how many people have the good fortune of appreciating such moments? I can do it everyday. Everyday I can go out, whenever I want to, and look at the Gulmohar tree. In fact at any part of the day I can do anything, and if I want to work, I can get up at 3 in the morning and switch on my laptop. I’m so lucky to be self-employed. And I value the fact that, work wise, if the vicissitudes of life permit, I’ll never be busy.