The riddle of being too busy

There is something really strange about the way we conduct ourselves when we have work in our hand. We forget that we are mere human beings who have certain emotions and are tied by innumerable relations. We behave in the most mechanical way and give a damn about the rest of the world. The strangest part is that we feel a certain pride in being busy. We make it a point to let others realise how engrossed, happy and satisfied we are in our world and thus how every one else is insignificant in our life.

However, the point is are we really as busy as we pretend to be? Do we actually don't have the time to call back mum when we see her missed calls or reply to a friend's message? How much time does it take to be in touch with everyone and does being busy means snapping relationships? These are some bothersome questions that are becoming more and more prominent in a society a that is increasingly becoming self centered and individualistic.

Work certainly is an indispensible part of life but then it's just a part and not our entire life. True, our career would finally decide our bank balance and standard of living but it certainly would not define the person we are. And the biggest question is are we really happy in our isolated worlds? Haven't you wanted to speak to some one in the middle of night just to bitch about your boss after it became too much for you to bear his bashing. Or didn't you feel like ringing up an old friend to cry your heart out after your beau became your ex?

Only if you had given a buzz to that friend on his birthday you would have the face to call him up. But that day you were too busy chomping pop corns in some corner of an empty cinema hall with your boyfriend or girlfriend who was destined to be your ex or went to bed after a tiring day of work five minutes earlier well remembering his birthday but too tired to wish him.

Things don't remain hunky dory all the times. Today you might be engazed with someone or something but tomorrow that dear person might abandon you and that cherished work may dessert you. But if you know how to acknowledge and stay connected with people in your happy and your so called busy days you would certainly find someone to be by your side on a sad ,lonely, idle day.

A new year and a new you

On the first day of the year you are filled with optimism that the year ahead would change your world in a big way and change it for better. You wish that the new year solves all your problem; that your rouge kids would behave themselves; that your fat, old wife would turn into a delicate arm candy; that your ever ill tempered and aloof boss would acknowledge your work; that you would get a long standing promotion and finally be able to make that trip to Goa you had always promised your kids. The wish list can go on as human desires know no limits.

But if you paid a little more attention to your wish list you discover a certain pattern in it.

In all your well-intentioned wishes, there never figures the desire for self change. While you believe that the New Year would usher in a dramatic change in your life, amending the people around and transforming the circumstances you find yourself in, you never ask for a change in yourself.

Are you perfect? Is there nothing in you that you would do better without in this new year.

You may think of yourself as a near perfect creation of God. You may no fault with yourself and blame all your misfortune on someone. You may deceive the world, but can you deceive yourself?

For once and all before beginning a new year with hopes of change, close your eyes and rewind the year in your mind. You would find that many a nasty fights could have been avoided and many a mishaps evaded if only you were a little less arrogant and a little more careful. A handful such teeny weenie corrections in yourself might just change the world around you in the way you had wanted it to be.

You spend hours discussing what’s wrong with others and believe all is well with you.

In our self-obsession, we neglect a vital activity of our life- self discovery. Introspection and not self-obsession will help us invent ourselves.

let this year be the year of real change. Utilise the newness of this year to rediscover and re-invent yourself. Otherwise this year would become as old and stale as the bygone one and you still find yourself as messed up, as discontent and as exasperated as ever. Gift yourself a brand new ‘you’ this New Year.