When I was a school kid I eagerly awaited my summer/winter vacations
and had big plans for those precious days ahead. Same was the fascination being
in college, as all the big plans that can’t be executed during the academic
session were to be implemented during these vacations. But as the graduation
from academic life to professional life
took place, the idea of vacation got restricted to a bucket of
approximately 20 odd vacation leaves that had to be consumed across the year. So
anything special be it a family get together, dinner with good friends,
outings, shopping etc. all have to be planned for the weekends or the 24 carat
gold-esque long weekends.
No doubt it’s so very exciting to wait for the weekends with Monday
being the most dreaded day and Friday being the most liked one but in
retrospect when I compare life today with what it was for say, my dad while I was
a kid, it’s totally contrasting. Firstly, we never knew about the concept of
weekend then, it was only Sunday as the weekly off for him and may be an
additional half day off on Saturdays. And secondly, nothing was planned
specifically for Saturdays or Sundays, it was all done on the fly with an
unstated understanding that all days are alike. So if I had to buy some clothes
it was done right after my dad’s day at work and wasn’t pushed to the Saturday/Sunday
to-do list. Same applied for b ’day dinners, visiting close family friends,
watching movies or any other trivial or critical task. Neither was my dad tired to pursue these activities post his
hectic day at work nor was anybody else at home. But today to imagine anything after
even a normal and not so tiring day at office, is like asking for one’s life.
It inevitably had to be pushed for the weekend.
But why such a drastic change in our mind set? The weekly work hours
still remain the same as they were 20 years back, in fact tad lesser
considering most of us have Saturdays off. Also, most of us work in the
comforts of well-equipped air-conditioned offices without breaking a sweat,
very much in contrast to how office life was for our parents in their youth.
Some can argue that the things like travel, competition and mental pressure today
take lot of toll but surely even our parents had their own share of stress in
their work places. So why are we not as agile when it comes to doing anything
post our work hours. Why are we so reluctant on week days and so much dependent
on weekends? Probably because we don’t want to stretch ourselves and come out
of our comfort zone.
And when our parents empathize with our routine saying that you guys
have such a tough life working from morning till late evening, it probably
further strengthens our belief that our life is much harder than what it was
for our parents. But it is a grossly over rated belief. While we conveniently or
rather lazily push even the smallest of tasks for weekend, our parents hardly
did that, in fact they dutifully catered to anything and everything we asked
for, after their work hours. So while we have knowingly or unknowingly adapted
to the western way of living the life by the weekends all too mechanically and
lazily our parents certainly deserve a lot of credit on how they managed
everything without waiting or pushing things for the illusive weekendJ.
Surely one
of the many things that we can learn and adopt from them.
--
kin…
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