Priorities

Finally, Anil is going back to Hyderabad and he is extremely happy about it. He broke this news to me yesterday when I called him to inquire about a common friend of ours as that friend was not reachable on cell. Anil has managed to get a job in Hyderabad with a decent salary package and will be in his very hometown with his people which was the most important thing of all. I was happy for hi, , but was also sad that I would lose a very good friend cum ex-colleague. We worked together in my previous company and though it is almost 9 months that I have left it, I am still missing my buddies who grew from my colleagues to friends and then to close friends. Anil was one of them. Anil looks as if he is a very quiet and shy person at the very first meeting with him. But when you start interacting with him regularly, you realize that he is fun to be with. He speaks in a typical Hyderabadi tone and makes you laugh. He has a mischievous face and his eyes play a major role in appearing mischievous! He has firm views about people around him and he is very vocal about it, which sometimes lands him into trouble. But he is just not bothered. He talks to everybody in the team but is friends with a handful of them. He doesn't get involved in any controversies, does his part of the job without getting involved in it and he knows extremely well how to sound and be like a thorough professional. He helps others when needed, but is very laid back most of the time. Getting involved in the work brings unhappiness and makes one upset is what I have learned from my previous experience and I must admit that I have lost the zeal and innocence of working at something which he/she is passionate about. I know so many people, who have different educational backgrounds and have landed up in a totally different field. They work on something which they have never ever done in their lives. I do not know what exactly goes in their minds and lives as I was very convinced some months ago that you ought to be fortunate enough in getting to do you always wanted, rather doing only what you have learned. But people have different opinions and now people are open to change. I know someone who has done his Electrical Engineering and has landed up with a job in an MNC and he is doing something in the e-learning field which is just a baby in India. Is there any connection between these two things? Nope, but people are happy in learning something which would help them earn bucks and help them sustain in this competitive world where everybody wants to excel in his/her own field and they choose nay path which comes across to achieve that so-called happiness in terms of money, fame, and status. So, Anil belongs to this category of people who are trained in something else and have landed up doing something totally different. He is a Spanish language expert and works as a German, Italian and Portuguese resource. He has molded himself in such a way that is literally ready to work for any region in the team and so he is very popular amongst the managers and team leaders who want him badly in case some language resource is absent. His manager doesn't want him to go back to Hyderabad where his family is, his real happiness it. He is very close to his family and stays in a joint family with his parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, etc. He is the youngest of 3 brothers and is very pampered and loved by his family members. He goes to Hyderabad every fortnight to be with his family and spend quality time with them. He is very sad when he returns to Bangalore. He hardly has any friends here with whom he can go out on the weekends. Bangalore offers solace to maddening crowds of people who love to dance, smoke, drink, eat in pubs, bars, etc. But for people like me and Anil, it has little to offer and we have to find the means of being happy by ourselves. There are so many people like me who have left their hometowns, families, friends and come here to eke out a living. Earning for a living and missing out on all those small things related to that house where we grew up, laughed, ate together with our parents, grandparents, learn the most important lessons of loving, caring, sharing, being humble and kind to others which no school, college or institution teaches you officially. Leaving all this far behind and setting up a different world of ours and our friends and colleagues, but where there are no parents and other family members who were responsible for bringing us to this peak of our careers. All the childhood memories just remain like a small dot somewhere in our minds and we all assimilate ourselves nicely in the new life, culture, friend circle thinking, and believing that this is my life. This is what I have chosen for myself. Every year we visit our respective homes in the other towns and wonder if we really belonged here sometime if we really were a part of all this just some years ago. Friends are busy with their own routine and it is a holiday time only for is. Many of our friends move out, get married, settle somewhere else and we lose touch with them. Everybody except us is very busy in that particular period when we decide to go on a trip down the memory lane. then we wonder wasn't Bangalore better? We come back to the work town and are almost inexplicable about our trip to the hometown. How strange is our mind! I am amazed at its powerful submission to any routine which it believes is going to be permanent for at least some time now. How nicely we blend ourselves with the hectic schedules in the work town! How quickly do we believe that we have been here for ages now? We almost forget that part of life and people where we study grew together and tend to remember the present where we are working and earning. This is a part and parcel of life, of growing, becoming independent, rich, famous, self-confident, and matured enough to carry on alone. How many people have the courage to carry in alone? How many people are ready to give up this luxurious and independent life and go back to the lives where they spent the best time and be with the people, who love them unconditionally. I do not have the courage to go back to my hometown which has nothing else to offer me than the most precious people in my life, my parents, and grandmom. But still, I won't leave this luxurious and independent life and go back and my people also won't like it as I am at the best of the career phase. I am glad someone has the guts to go back where his heart is, someone knows where his happiness is and going back to the place where he always longed to go. I am very glad, that at least Anil did it!!