Off late, I have taken to Spanish. I started learning it in January this year with my friend Sudhir. He is a French Language Expert and I am a German Language Expert. So we both decided to learn a language which is entirely unknown and new to us. Spanish was the best option as we both were not ready to teach other our specialized language. Spanish, being the second most spoken language in the world and also due to the proximity of the Instituto Hispania, became our unanimous choice and we joined the class together.
They say, it is a fun language and very similar to English. I did not find it easy. It may be due to the fact that I was already well-versed in one foreign language and I was not looking at it from a career point of view. I was learning it just to do something worthwhile on weekends rather than sitting at home watching TV or surfing internet aimlessly. Sudhir was also instrumental in joining the class as I would have his company while going to the class and also while coming back. I hate to do something entirely novice without knowing a face there. We both started enthusiastically. Sudhir picked it up very quickly and I was as usual in the back-seat, learning and observing slowly. But towards the end of level 1, Sudhir gave up and I continued till the end, gave my finals and scored decent marks. I learned to be on my own without Sudhir being around all the time.
And then after taking a break of 4 months, I joined Level 2 in August. No one from my previous batch was with me at the new level. It was a very mixed class and we gelled quite well. Augustin, our teacher was very enthusiastic and we sang songs with him on all the weekends that we had classes with him. And then I was introduced to this amazing world of Spanish music. When I heard it initially, it lacked the tune, rhythm, beat which the Indian music is replete of. Slowly, I began to follow and understand the lyrics. Well, there are not only love songs in Spanish. There are songs for specific events, occasions, and festivals. They also carry some message sometimes. One such song, which I came across and liked the tune and lyrics, is “Dejame Vivir”, which literally means let me live my life. Life is then compared with air, dove, etc. In short, it gives a message of living a carefree life, doing things what the heart really wants than letting the head rule over it.
I sometimes wonder, what would have my life being if I was a dove or just plain air? I just want to be and not think of many monetary benefits and logical explanations of life. I would have done things which would have given me immense pleasure and satisfaction, though less money.
I live in a society, which is bound by rules and regulations, which do not impact me directly. I mean, no one here directs me here to act and behave in a particular way, but whatever has been given to me by my parents is what I am carrying forward. Money is immensely important to be able to give yourself and your dependents a meaningful life. How would one define a meaningful life? Along with the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, a bit of luxury and indulgence should also be provided. I am talking of this young generation and not of my grandparents who were happy with the minimal things they had in their life. When one has the instruments of power and wealth in his hands, he can sit back and talk about the poverty in 3rd world countries, the increasing value of rupee, doing some social help to the needy, etc. What I mean to say is once the standard threshold of necessities is crossed, can one think of thinking big and making a difference to the world. I do not deny that there were some exceptional individuals who rose high above the basic necessities and became world-class leaders, even though their basic needs were not fulfilled. But as I said, such people were exceptional and this cannot trigger down to masses every time.
Now that my basic needs are fulfilled and I have got married, have settled down quite well in a new city and new job which gives me a lot of money, but no mental satisfaction. How far can I take this dissatisfaction in the job with me and how much importance should I give to money? I have to decide at some point of time in life, whether to be a part of the dirty games played in the name of work or give myself the pleasure of seeing the happiness on the faces of the people, trying to learn a new foreign language which I will teach them?
Should I treat my juniors and colleagues as third class individuals or should I treat them as respectful individuals who have brains and also a heart? Should I kick this fat salary which is making my work-life unbearable and accept something less glamorous and less paying, but which will give me some satisfaction and also a freedom to pursue my own hobbies, passions and also engage in social work too?
There are so many people who exactly know what they want and surprisingly money is not always a priority. I know someone who gave up the dream of teaching, in spite of having done MA and B.Ed just for the sake of her kids and family who needed her. She has not regretted it once for having chosen family over independence and money. I also know someone who is a Chartered Accountant, highly brilliant, fluent in Russian and Polish, who got retired at the age of 40, went back to a “writing school” and is now a full-time writer and is in process of publishing his first novel. He writes for the pure joy of it and gets a very high satisfaction out of it. He didn’t care what people and society thought about his giving up of a high paying job with the Russian Embassy just to be with himself and do whatever he really wanted to do.
Isn’t that amazing? These people have guts to follow whatever they aspired and pursued it without any thoughts of remorse and regret. In this democratic country, one should be able to do what he/she wants, isn’t it? Of course, it should be within the laws and shouldn’t harm the interest of the other person. How many people practice what they have done academically with interest? I have 2 engineer friends, who are not working in the IT industry as Engineers but as German Language Experts. There may be many reasons behind it. The good pay for foreign language experts can be one of the reasons as well as the inability to get a decently paying job as Engineers could have driven them to take up this thing, which is almost entirely different than what they invested all the years of Engineering. I also know someone who has done post-graduation in Economics but is doing a data entry job in some unknown private company. This is a very blatant picture of reality and quite opposite to the example of the engineers, I cited earlier. I also know someone who has done Electrical Engineering but is now working as a Project Manager in a German company after doing some good courses in E-learning field. He never wanted to be in IT, but it seems he had no choice some 13 years back then to be a part of the herd which was either doing Engineering or medical. He wanted to do his post-graduation in History, but that wouldn’t have brought him so many bucks and luxury as he is currently enjoying. Am I am not sure if he is happy with this stressful like of his or he would have been happier in the life of an archaeologist or a lecturer. But he would have been engaged with that he really liked and would have been in a better position to enjoy the content of heart and fulfillment of his life as he would have done what he passionately likes to do. Money flows in very easily, but the joy of doing what one likes? It is missing, is what I feel. Money has brought him a name, fame, status, car, a fat bank balance, but what about his personal health? Choice of going off somewhere to see places, just like that? Lying on a beach watching the tide? Traveling in an ordinary sleeper class of train? Not anymore…
Living a carefree life, not worrying about the future or bank balance is not an in-thing today, because our ancestors have always stressed the virtue of planning for the future. In order to be able to live tomorrow, we have to let go of small things today. No one knows how many years he is going to live, but he wishes to die rich rather than live everyday modestly. This is my personal observation. Everybody is busy doing something worth in terms of monetary gain, monetary benefit. Who follows the heart nowadays? Who has the time to give to hobbies? Who pursues hobbies as careers? Hardly a few people do it. As there is no good monetary return, people prefer to slog in a brainless job rather than devoting time to hobbies and interests and pursuing them as a career.
Making people run after something which will never satisfy a human being is the characteristic of money. No matter how much one has, he can never be satisfied. He will want more and more and that will increase his frustration and inability to be content with whatever he currently has.
I am not going to be one amongst the 1000’s of people who let go of their mental satisfaction and peace in pursuit of earning more and more and more money. I have a choice of doing things little differently and I also have the time and choice to do something, I really like, unlike many others who are bound in technology, experience, etc. I am going to think about my inner peace rather than comparing myself in terms of lac of rupees I have in my bank. I do not care about what people will think of me when I refuse to work in a reputed IT company, do something out of the role defined for me.
I would rather follow my heart, do teaching, take up freelancing translation jobs, go for singing class, learn and teach Spanish, help people read and write, explore my writing abilities and be happy rather than cribbing every day coming to the office and doing what I detest.
Have you followed your heart yet?
They say, it is a fun language and very similar to English. I did not find it easy. It may be due to the fact that I was already well-versed in one foreign language and I was not looking at it from a career point of view. I was learning it just to do something worthwhile on weekends rather than sitting at home watching TV or surfing internet aimlessly. Sudhir was also instrumental in joining the class as I would have his company while going to the class and also while coming back. I hate to do something entirely novice without knowing a face there. We both started enthusiastically. Sudhir picked it up very quickly and I was as usual in the back-seat, learning and observing slowly. But towards the end of level 1, Sudhir gave up and I continued till the end, gave my finals and scored decent marks. I learned to be on my own without Sudhir being around all the time.
And then after taking a break of 4 months, I joined Level 2 in August. No one from my previous batch was with me at the new level. It was a very mixed class and we gelled quite well. Augustin, our teacher was very enthusiastic and we sang songs with him on all the weekends that we had classes with him. And then I was introduced to this amazing world of Spanish music. When I heard it initially, it lacked the tune, rhythm, beat which the Indian music is replete of. Slowly, I began to follow and understand the lyrics. Well, there are not only love songs in Spanish. There are songs for specific events, occasions, and festivals. They also carry some message sometimes. One such song, which I came across and liked the tune and lyrics, is “Dejame Vivir”, which literally means let me live my life. Life is then compared with air, dove, etc. In short, it gives a message of living a carefree life, doing things what the heart really wants than letting the head rule over it.
I sometimes wonder, what would have my life being if I was a dove or just plain air? I just want to be and not think of many monetary benefits and logical explanations of life. I would have done things which would have given me immense pleasure and satisfaction, though less money.
I live in a society, which is bound by rules and regulations, which do not impact me directly. I mean, no one here directs me here to act and behave in a particular way, but whatever has been given to me by my parents is what I am carrying forward. Money is immensely important to be able to give yourself and your dependents a meaningful life. How would one define a meaningful life? Along with the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, a bit of luxury and indulgence should also be provided. I am talking of this young generation and not of my grandparents who were happy with the minimal things they had in their life. When one has the instruments of power and wealth in his hands, he can sit back and talk about the poverty in 3rd world countries, the increasing value of rupee, doing some social help to the needy, etc. What I mean to say is once the standard threshold of necessities is crossed, can one think of thinking big and making a difference to the world. I do not deny that there were some exceptional individuals who rose high above the basic necessities and became world-class leaders, even though their basic needs were not fulfilled. But as I said, such people were exceptional and this cannot trigger down to masses every time.
Now that my basic needs are fulfilled and I have got married, have settled down quite well in a new city and new job which gives me a lot of money, but no mental satisfaction. How far can I take this dissatisfaction in the job with me and how much importance should I give to money? I have to decide at some point of time in life, whether to be a part of the dirty games played in the name of work or give myself the pleasure of seeing the happiness on the faces of the people, trying to learn a new foreign language which I will teach them?
Should I treat my juniors and colleagues as third class individuals or should I treat them as respectful individuals who have brains and also a heart? Should I kick this fat salary which is making my work-life unbearable and accept something less glamorous and less paying, but which will give me some satisfaction and also a freedom to pursue my own hobbies, passions and also engage in social work too?
There are so many people who exactly know what they want and surprisingly money is not always a priority. I know someone who gave up the dream of teaching, in spite of having done MA and B.Ed just for the sake of her kids and family who needed her. She has not regretted it once for having chosen family over independence and money. I also know someone who is a Chartered Accountant, highly brilliant, fluent in Russian and Polish, who got retired at the age of 40, went back to a “writing school” and is now a full-time writer and is in process of publishing his first novel. He writes for the pure joy of it and gets a very high satisfaction out of it. He didn’t care what people and society thought about his giving up of a high paying job with the Russian Embassy just to be with himself and do whatever he really wanted to do.
Isn’t that amazing? These people have guts to follow whatever they aspired and pursued it without any thoughts of remorse and regret. In this democratic country, one should be able to do what he/she wants, isn’t it? Of course, it should be within the laws and shouldn’t harm the interest of the other person. How many people practice what they have done academically with interest? I have 2 engineer friends, who are not working in the IT industry as Engineers but as German Language Experts. There may be many reasons behind it. The good pay for foreign language experts can be one of the reasons as well as the inability to get a decently paying job as Engineers could have driven them to take up this thing, which is almost entirely different than what they invested all the years of Engineering. I also know someone who has done post-graduation in Economics but is doing a data entry job in some unknown private company. This is a very blatant picture of reality and quite opposite to the example of the engineers, I cited earlier. I also know someone who has done Electrical Engineering but is now working as a Project Manager in a German company after doing some good courses in E-learning field. He never wanted to be in IT, but it seems he had no choice some 13 years back then to be a part of the herd which was either doing Engineering or medical. He wanted to do his post-graduation in History, but that wouldn’t have brought him so many bucks and luxury as he is currently enjoying. Am I am not sure if he is happy with this stressful like of his or he would have been happier in the life of an archaeologist or a lecturer. But he would have been engaged with that he really liked and would have been in a better position to enjoy the content of heart and fulfillment of his life as he would have done what he passionately likes to do. Money flows in very easily, but the joy of doing what one likes? It is missing, is what I feel. Money has brought him a name, fame, status, car, a fat bank balance, but what about his personal health? Choice of going off somewhere to see places, just like that? Lying on a beach watching the tide? Traveling in an ordinary sleeper class of train? Not anymore…
Living a carefree life, not worrying about the future or bank balance is not an in-thing today, because our ancestors have always stressed the virtue of planning for the future. In order to be able to live tomorrow, we have to let go of small things today. No one knows how many years he is going to live, but he wishes to die rich rather than live everyday modestly. This is my personal observation. Everybody is busy doing something worth in terms of monetary gain, monetary benefit. Who follows the heart nowadays? Who has the time to give to hobbies? Who pursues hobbies as careers? Hardly a few people do it. As there is no good monetary return, people prefer to slog in a brainless job rather than devoting time to hobbies and interests and pursuing them as a career.
Making people run after something which will never satisfy a human being is the characteristic of money. No matter how much one has, he can never be satisfied. He will want more and more and that will increase his frustration and inability to be content with whatever he currently has.
I am not going to be one amongst the 1000’s of people who let go of their mental satisfaction and peace in pursuit of earning more and more and more money. I have a choice of doing things little differently and I also have the time and choice to do something, I really like, unlike many others who are bound in technology, experience, etc. I am going to think about my inner peace rather than comparing myself in terms of lac of rupees I have in my bank. I do not care about what people will think of me when I refuse to work in a reputed IT company, do something out of the role defined for me.
I would rather follow my heart, do teaching, take up freelancing translation jobs, go for singing class, learn and teach Spanish, help people read and write, explore my writing abilities and be happy rather than cribbing every day coming to the office and doing what I detest.
Have you followed your heart yet?
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