Then and now.
I remember while my husband was in service he used to leave home at 8AM &be home by 6PM mostly.The exceptions were few & far between.In the evenings we used to visit his colleagues & neighbors. On holidays we would go out for picnics etc &relax while exchanging thoughts on various topics,while our kids played to their heart"s content.
Cut to now.Both my son & son-in-law leave in the morning & are never back before 8 PM at the earliest.By that time they are so tired that even a chat session with family is not so welcome.So where is the room for socialization ? Or relaxation ?
We have come far from our home towns & our relatives too are far from where we live.In fact we depend on our friend-circle for any help we may need.Our kids too are now in other cities,but they don't have this rich support system to fall back upon.
Yes they do have lots of virtual friends,they are able to exchange news with their old friends but this chasm between virtual &real friends-it is very real.
Very true picture Indu and well written. I am sure I realized that its the same lifestyle that I am missing that once upon a time my dad used to follow. Today I am working during the nights and my work hours itself is 10, add to that 4 hours of total office - home travelling means that I am effectively left with only 10 hours for the day. An hour is spent in the gym, and then rest is spent sleeping, getting ready and having lunch.
As Animesh said, weekends no more mean picinic for me, those two days were always the days to recover my missed sleep.
Sadly high paying jobs require more hours of work. Even if you want to they won't let you work half the time for half the salary. So if you want to go for a lower paying job, only quality of work and salary goes down. Still they make you slog. Modern life is too tough to survive. Hoarding wealth and early retirement seems the only solution.
That's right. Even if you want you cannot. The (degraded) quality of work will kill you.
Life is increasingly becoming more and more hectic. It's become a race and everyone seems to be running. That they have a choice or not here, is a different issue altogether.
Agree completely. I would also like to mention the Virus of 3 Idiots, "Life is a race, if you dont run fast, you will be like a ......" 
A heavy dose of strong antibiotics is needed to get rid of this deadly Virus
@animesh,indianomics & The Fool(y do u call yourself that ?) you all have depicted a very true picture of the professional scenario today....it is like riding a lion----u can neither carry on,nor disembark....but i feel very bad for all who are leading such lives because what is life without proper relaxation & the space to enjoy the fruits of your labor ?But you all do manage everything-all said & done...hats off!!!
And you have voiced the sentiments of -i dont know how many- when you talk of early retirement...a couple of professionals i know ( in their forties) are already dreaming of that....but spiralling prices & demands of a growing family ; will they allow this to happen ?
@Arti Every race has an end , but this one seems endless...it is in this race only that the runners will have to hunt their oasis of peace n pleasure!
Indu, I think we all here have found an answer to this, blogging. Yes, we are fade up of this life. I am sure too fade up. I miss Patna, my birth place where I spent 20 years of my life, my parents, my friends, everything. I am losing contacts with all my relatives because most of them take me as a special person who earns in five figures and works at an MNC. They give me special treatment which I hate. To get rid of this I keep myself engaged in my music and writing.
animesh yes blogging does give vent to our feelings ....you have found your oasis,good....even i pine for Delhi where i spent the first 1/4 century of my life but what can one do except find alternatives however meager they may be...this is one thing only the MNCs can rectify,but why would they ?..only yesterday the health capsule of TOI said "Cutting down on your leisure time can increase your risk of heart disease 8fold due to the lack of downtime away from the stress of work."
This was only for info but dont give it a 2nd thought...many of these researches have a history of contradicting their findings adter a while.
Live long.b happy n Happy New YEAR!!!!!!!!
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