A column in last Sunday's Hindustan Times Brunch 'A Life Less
Ordinary' touched a raw nerve. Of course what it says is all true - everybody
these days wants to have the best life, best holidays, best dinners, even best
kids! But for many of us, do we have a choice? Personally, many of us may like
nothing better than roll up at home with a good book or play with our children.
Professionally, one may like to tinker around on the more technical issues at
hand. However, professional life seems to be pushing us relentlessly towards
less meaningful (read: less technical & more 'schmoozing' kind) roles. And
the pressures of work start to have an effect on reading & other habits at
home - hardly any time!
The point is, in the current scenario, there may be only a few professions (mostly those on the creative side) where you can afford to take it easy and opt out of the rat race. For most others, if you are not moving ahead, you are actually falling behind! One may like to keep doing whatever holds meaning for one (and also adds value to the organisation, of course) for an extended period of time. However, at the end of, say, three years, if one has not moved up in career, people around in office (and also kith & kin, who are a big part of the equation) may start treating the person as a laggard ("He would be somewhere today if he had the ability"). Or, worse still, s/he may be looking at being 'downsized' ("not dynamic enough")!
So 'keeping up with the Joneses' has another angle - not being able to get off the tiger's back (no allusion to Raju!). And so we continue, suppressing our inner desires & feelings and going with whatever works (and being a rat in the race!).
The point is, in the current scenario, there may be only a few professions (mostly those on the creative side) where you can afford to take it easy and opt out of the rat race. For most others, if you are not moving ahead, you are actually falling behind! One may like to keep doing whatever holds meaning for one (and also adds value to the organisation, of course) for an extended period of time. However, at the end of, say, three years, if one has not moved up in career, people around in office (and also kith & kin, who are a big part of the equation) may start treating the person as a laggard ("He would be somewhere today if he had the ability"). Or, worse still, s/he may be looking at being 'downsized' ("not dynamic enough")!
So 'keeping up with the Joneses' has another angle - not being able to get off the tiger's back (no allusion to Raju!). And so we continue, suppressing our inner desires & feelings and going with whatever works (and being a rat in the race!).
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