(14
Jun 09)
There’s something about living in the fast lane that
sharpens one’s faculties, that’s addictive, that brings out one’s best.
Mechanical? I don’t think so.
I’m
a working woman, not a career one. I can’t become the CE of an institution, but
I do get a salary to pay for bread and rent. My first proper ‘job’, age 38,
Goa, in a five-star hotel was a part time one. True, I had to work Sundays and
public holidays, but it didn’t matter and many of my waking hours were spent at
home, on housework, reading, writing, doing bank-work, paying bills. Somehow,
although the routine was tightly packed, the pace wasn’t considered fast.
Perhaps because life around me was slow and steady. The word hectic came into
my vocabulary only when I moved out.
In Mumbai, in the beginning, although my job was full-time,
I still had six days off a month, what joy!! Four Sundays and two Saturdays. I
could do all of the above and yet have time to day-dream and go for programs:
dance, music, theatre, all of that. Still didn’t seem fast though everyone
around me was speeding.
Then came the Recession. The Company decided to use the
ruse to do away with the Saturdays or Additional Offs as they were called. We
all have to work six days a week now. I live within walking distance, so
commuting takes negligible time; but consider some others: they must leave
their homes by 5 am if they have the morning shift, after filling water, making
the tiffin, perhaps even washing the clothes. Either they get dropped, or they
take an auto, or they walk to the station. The train they must ride is packed
to the brim, and they must mind bag and footwear whilst they get crushed and
elbowed. Crumpled and sweaty, they trudge or take a cab to office from the
station. There is no leeway for tiredness at work. By the end of the shift, if
the next person hasn’t come in, it’s OverTime. Else, it’s the backward race in
reverse. Sprint to the train, get squashed till the destination, buy the
vegetables whilst briskly striding homewards so that one has something to cook
for the night meal. There’s no time to read the newspaper, tv overrules
everything. Waxing limbs, doing eyebrows, dying hair are Public Holiday chores.
Anyone who feels life in America is fast aught to come to Mumbai. An average
Mumbaikar works more hours per day, per week, too.
“But,” say the NRIs, “You have maids.”
B---S---, I say. That doesn’t reduce the speed of life any.
And, oh yes, the maids are working women, too, with a high speed lifestyle of
their own. It mayn’t be glamorous, but it’s fast alright.
Those working in the travel industry possibly lead the
fastest lives, specially if they’re crossing time zones. They’re the other end
of the speed spectrum, the first end being those who crawl through zindagi. Just as leading a slow life
doesn’t mean it’s a fulfilled, creative, happy one, living a racy, hectic
lifestyle doesn’t mean it’s a mechanical, unhappy one. An optimum pace, tilting
towards the faster side, certainly gets the adrenalin and other chemicals
flowing through the body, allowing the person to give his/her best to whatever
is the task at hand, yet leaving scope for hobbies, interests, laughter, zest.
A well- planned city provides
opportunity to its citizens to do all of that. Mumbai, bless the Brits, no
credit to any local, non-colonial government, has it all.
Goa, thanks to the Portuguese legacy, is blessed with good
roads, levels of literacy, and fairly high levels of culture (ie interest in
sports, music, art, literature). Recently, a friend told me she likes the
‘slow’ life in Goa. Was it supposed to please me? I gave it thought. I believe
many people I know, Goans and bhailen settled
there, live fairly speedy lives to the fullest. I think we should stop taking
pride in “Goa’s a laid back state”. It’s not. People commute from their
villages to faraway offices, people work late hours, six day weeks, and many of
them work and write or work and paint or work and party… The big advantage Goa has is that the
marathoners, the sprinters and the spectators, all have their space, non-trespassing
into the others’ territory.
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