There is a certain attitude amongst middle class society in India, that I would like to share, having come under it’s unappetizing effects rather recently.
The other day, my significant other (Don’t know what else to call her – I never liked to tag her as my wife), informed me, that in the ET Awards function, India’s top CEO’s had replied, when asked how much time they get in their personal life, that this was not the time for India to be bothered with a personal life. That this was India’s time to work as hard as possible. All this was received with much applause on the part of the audience!
The same attitude was visible in my previous office. The prevailing opinion was that to be worth something, you had to work hard. Even if there was an easier way to do it, one must work hard, complete the job with much sweat and toil, and be covered in glory. If an easier way was found, it was considered no great achievement. Great emphasis was placed on being seen to be working.
My recent situation, where I am exploring freelancing on oDesk as an alternative to traditional work, has been critiqued roundly by my father. He gives a number of reasons, not all of which quite stick together under close scrutiny, but underlying it all, is a primary reason. All the other reasons are rationalizations. The primary reason is that it seems too easy a life.
Again, I am lucky enough to live in my own compound, away from my parents, and not pay rent. My father feels that this is too easy for me, and I should work hard and prove (this word keeps coming up -‘prove’) that I can earn my own keep completely. To whom should I prove this and why? I don’t need to prove it to myself. Pushed to it, I’m sure I can, but why should I deliberately push myself to it? Should I prove it to him? There’s no need for that. I don’t need to justify my existence to him.
There are thousands of people in the world who are luckier than me. Thousands of people who don’t need to work at all, and have a far easier time than I do. I don’t grudge them their lifestyle. I don’t grudge Bertie Wooster his style of living so easily. So why should I grudge myself, my own small portion of good luck?
What is this obsession with working hard for the sake of working hard? People seem to be deriving their self worth from how others perceive them to be working, and saying – He’s a hard worker, so he’s OK. As if there’s a need to justify their existence to the world, instead of accepting that they exist. As if they are tendering an apology to the world, and to themselves, and saying “Here. I don’t deserve to live. But see! I’m working as hard as possible, and not enjoying myself. Forgive me for the sin of existing.”
Doubtless, this may be thought as an exaggeration, but an exaggeration is necessary when you want to bring home the point. I have observed this sort of attitude over and over again in several people.
My views on the matter, is that such people are not sure of themselves at all. They feel you have to earn your right to live. As if living is a commodity like any other that needs to be purchased. If one has to work, then of course one has to work. But one works in order to live. Not the other way round. If living comes by itself, then work become unnecessary. Work is a means and not an end. Of course, if one enjoys doing something, then let them do it to fulfill themselves. But one mustn’t hold oneself up as an example, and say, “See! I’m working. Admire me, and follow my example.”
Since when has material comfort solved the fundamental problems of humans? After 10,000 years of existence, we are still the same people, fighting the same battles, and facing the same problems, though in different ways. These existential problems are of humanity itself, and cannot be solved by outside means, but only through inward means.
How does one combat this trend in Indian Society? Indeed, the whole economic apparatus is geared towards making us feel this way. The economic system, once set in motion, becomes hungry to keep itself going, and for this, it begins to feed on the people whom it was created to serve in the first place.
Let me tell all the CEO’s who had proudly proclaimed that this was not the time for Indians to pay attention to their family lives – “Mind your own damn business, and don’t lecture me as to what I should do. Look to yourselves first, and see how you’re driven by forces outside yourselves. We are not slaves, but free people. And I will not be a slave to a false conscience that is being imposed on me by people like you. My true conscience is my own to keep.”