Thursday, January 5, 2012

A Random Day-Off from Work


Taking a day off from a busy schedule has a lot of positives. Our daily busy routines consumes more than just our time. It includes health, family time, social life, and other important aspects of life. While going through the same stuff daily causes us to overlook important details embedded. It’s like our minds get frozen in time and our brains stop telling us from right to wrong. This goes on for a while and then we become oblivious from the fact that we might have turned into robots. 

A daily work routine starts from getting up early in the morning at the same time, driving to work on the same route and vice versa. I think this routine gets so mechanical that we could precisely predict how long each one of these items would take us to accomplish our work. The driving back and forth to work also gets so mechanical in nature that we don’t miss a beat with the route that we take to work.

However, taking a random day off from work gets us out of this mechanical routine. The day starts with not waking up at the same time in the morning. This out-of-routine itself has a soothing affect on mind and body. The mind first tries to adjust to the daily routine mode and then relaxation takes over. Sleeping for an hour or two extra on these days off also relaxes the body. The sleep-deprived brain and body does not function to its capacity. Therefore, it is essential that once in a while, we do get a chance to sleep for extra few hours.
The day runs with breakfast late, relaxing our moods, doing our favorite chores and once in a while, lowering downs our guards. These out-of-routine activities help the mind get the bearings back to zero. That way, the mind gets to work in a natural way, the way it is supposed to, rather than a mechanical way. Playing and talking with the kids, spending quality time with the family, reading and finishing the books, and just taking it easy the good ol’ fashioned way, really helps in getting out of the rut.  

Getting to work the next day does not seem old after that day. The work itself looks new after the mind and body are rested well. Spending time in the office does not get on the nerves. And dealing with co-workers gets better too. 

It is important to maintain a balance between work and life. The work should not consume our life. That is why there are normal working hours. We are responsible for work between these hours only. Also, this work was going on before we were here and this will go on after we have left this place. Therefore, we should only worry about to an extent. The kids will not remain kids forever. Once they grow up, they will get busy in their lives and they won’t have time for us, like we don’t have time for them now. Our health will not remain the same if we didn’t take good care of it. So try to take advantage of all these luxuries while we have them. Think outside the box. That way we will function better and outputs will improve if we maintain a healthy balance between our work and life. And keep our priorities in order too.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Positive Change in the Society


There have been quite an extensive discussions going on in Pakistan in terms of change these days. People are quite determined to change themselves in many ways. There is a big talk about political change. Our social fabric, communication systems, media, judiciary, public and private sector and most importantly, our mindset in general are experiencing change.

Generally speaking, as a society, we have been stagnant and accepted status quo as a chosen way. There was a student revolution back in the 70’s which brought us many changes. There were a few things which changed including our political system, and to some extent, media got its feet firmly on the ground. Then came the 80’s and freedoms of expression and speech were discouraged and any discontent and resentment were fiercely handled. In the 90’s, things slowly back tracked to the 70’s level, when politically people were free to voice their opinions. But that was still the period of infancy for our society. People were trying to learn to balance their opinions and not to step overboard too much. There could be several reasons and one of them could be to protect this luxury back in the society. 

Either way, the society needs a way to express itself. This is like a pressure cooker. The cork of the pressure needs to be loosened if the pressure builds itself up. Otherwise, the pressure cooker will burst open.
Then came the new millennium decade, and things were still tight but media came around. This was again a slow process. Along came mobile phones and internet communications. Things moved along with time. It seems like, besides political parties, the society has again found its voice in the form of media. There are still certain things which are out of bound for media to express freely on the electronic media. The society also shows its support for media by taking keen interest and participation. The society has always been very involved in the betterment of the country. But it was hard to take command of the destiny of the country.
This time it seems like all the branches of the administration have submitted to the authority of the people of this country. That is why everybody is trying to please and wooing the society. I think this is a big change for us. The vibrant and dynamic media has made it possible for us to decide what is better for the country. The society shows it’s pleasure or discontent right away with text messages, SMS, phones, internet, live phone calls and several other ways to participate whether the authorities made the right decision or not. I think this is a very positive change. 

I am positive that as we move along with time, we will see things happening for the better for the society and our country. We will make progress in our political system and other important branches of the administration. People will come around to see how much power they yield and what laws exist in our constitution for us. That is why, the realization of the fact that, the public, is the real authority in our country, will change things for the better.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Community Developing


Back in good ol’ days, the villagers would gather around a fire in the winter on charpoys, with smoking sheesha and talk about their daily activities, issues, concerns, and discuss anything from local or international topics. They would talk about anywhere from where to get a good fodder for their calves to how the second world war is being conducted in Germany. Many of their internal feuds, problems and concerns would be resolved right at that place amicably. Also, many of their concerns were answered and they would leave that place with satisfaction.

Even though many circumstances have been changed since, however, the villages still try to gather around in the evenings to talk about different things. These evening gatherings serves more of an institution to learn and resolve complex issues. Second, these gatherings also provide a venue for these villagers to vent out any frustrations and irratants in their lives. No wonder the villagers have longer life span than city dwellers.
The issues which are discussed and talked about in these groups also help them to stem out any differences among them before the issues can become ‘real’ problems. 

One of the dillemas with living in the city is that city dwellers don’t find time to gather in the evenings. Time is a precious commidity in the city. Everybody is pretty occupied with various things. There are other gadgets which keep them busy too. Plus the city life is so much busier than the village, that even the weekends are  planned ahead. Therefore, the communities don’t find time to share and discuss any emerging news, updates, issues, concens and don’t get to learn anything different other than being pre-occupied with their lives. 

In my opinion, the communities should work out a plan to have common gatherings and make it essential for everybody to attend these meetings. These small meetings can serve as a foundation stone for a common stand on an issue. These meetings would also show that the communities care about each other. Their children would get a chance to know and grow up together. Their families would know who to turn to for help. And more importantly, the communities would benefit as the proverb goes, “two heads are better than one.”