I haven’t spent a single Diwali away from home and family in the last two and a half decades of my life, but this one I am witnessing one. As the student phase of my life has now temporarily ended (though I will always remain a student of all the domains I am passionate for), and the professional one has started, this hasn’t come as a big surprise for me. It is a phase where I don’t have the luxury of procrastinating, randomly taking days off, celebrating every festival with the fervour I want, and living a life carrying no major (professional) responsibility on my shoulders. As I have stepped up the professional ladder, I have come to realize certain revelations about life. This Diwali, I am more than a thousand km away from home, in the lap of pristine forests, and thus celebrating it only by cherishing the scintillatingly adorned township from my fond place, balcony. Besides embracing my heart with the divine memories and heartwarming experiences from the past and fondling my soul with the moments of sheer leisure; I am brainstorming on the following lessons I have learnt following a significant gain in my overall wisdom and maturity in the last two months.
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| Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash |
Irrespective of whichever profession you are in, once you start getting
responsibilities on your shoulders, your life will never be the same as earlier.
(Limiting myself here to workplace responsibilities only. Family,
parents etc pose an entirely different & much typical story. Will talk about it
later someday.) The day you’ll get bosses - whom you need to listen, follow,
and give solicit advice as and when they need; the subordinates - whose actions
will entirely depend on your decisions; and the colleagues – who won’t be able
to able to give life to a plan without your presence, you will realize that this
phase of life is way too different from your earlier school/college/preparation
phase. The entire hierarchy of people
working over, under and at par with you, will no doubt make you a better
person, groom your personality with multiple positives, and add a number of
fascinating feathers to your career’s cap, but at the same time snatch a lot of
peace and happiness from your life. When you hold a portfolio of power, certainly
you get numerous perks associated with it, but at the same time, you will also
be held accountable for anything that goes wrong in your domain. As a result, you will need to take care of every nuance of your job, perform your duty
with the utmost care, and deal with every internal and external stakeholder with
due diligence – and this all, unfortunately, comes at a hefty
cost that you’ll need to pay in the denominations of time and fun.
***
As I am first exploring this belt of our country, my body is taking a
time little longer than usual to settle with the overly magnificent aura of this
place. Also, doing the first full-time job from the office is also putting a
significant toll in the form of certain complications that never showed their
ugly faces in the past. Despite living in a healthier environment, adopting
better day-to-day practices, and including even more fitness activities like
swimming, playing multiple sports, and regularly gyming-meditating etc; weird and
never-happened-before health complications are somehow obstructing my overall zeal
and delight. Following the complications, I was forced to spend an entire day
at the 'Polo' Hospital a couple of weeks ago for a proper checkup. During the
hours when I was lying in the multiple not-so-peaceful wards of the hospital and
getting a litany of tests done on my body, I realized, and realized it with a
bang that ‘there’s absolutely no meaning of all glitz and glam, handsome salary,
and plush lifestyle; if your health isn’t completely well. Looking all fit and
fine from out doesn’t imply at all that your heart and brain are in the same
state per se’.
***
Despite getting into the organization I long wished for; despite being an
alumnus of the most prestigious media institute in the country; despite doing
the exact same job for which I actually took my entire career upside down; and
despite earning the salary & perks decently over as what I expected earning
in the earliest years of my professional career - I am still having a tiny
gigantic lacuna (pertaining to the professional sphere) in my heart. As the
philosophy of Buddha says “…unlimited desires are the cause of human misery”.
True that one should always strive for the best in one’s field and never go
complacent. But at the same time, one should never underestimate the power of contentment and the toxic repercussions of never-ending desires.
***
Though I have been living away from home & family for almost a
decade now, no place was this far and out of direct connectivity as the one
I am presently in. Irrespective of when, how, and why, I was never so far away from my family's blissful shower of love and care that I couldn’t reach home at
max within an overnight journey. Also, as I mentioned in the beginning, I anyway
just can’t pack up my bag and go back to my place now without any prior
planning, no matter how grand or important the occasion is. I won’t say that if we are with our families and are at our homes, we always take
them for granted; but at least to some extent, we don’t give them the value they
deserve. Now that I am hundreds of miles away from home, that too without having a
proper direct connectivity; I am realizing it well that how much parents,
family and home matter.
Celebrating Diwali at home with parents, family, near and dear ones, and
good old friends is a platinum treat that I am seriously missing (and how!!!) this
time.
All best wishes,
May all happiness, success, good health and prosperity come your way.