What we will always miss!!!!!!!

Many times during my sojourn to Akola (my hometown), I ponder upon the thought of what and why I will never be able to achieve, what my parents have achieved inspite of getting the best education, the chosen lifestyle and the impeccable upbringing. Many of the youths of my generation, who hail from Tier-2 cities and have to almost compulsory shift their base to metros like Mumbai, Delhi et al and whose parents are involved in any non-service type of vocation would probably relate to this thought.

Most of us would take up a job and be happy to work 5 days a week and chill out on the weekend only to realize that 48 hours of weekend seem to end up in 48 minutes. We would rent a flat, stay with friends, and probably would never be able to develop relations with anyone other than our colleagues and our roommates. At that stage, the hectic schedule would even make meeting our good old friends difficult. All this to get fifty grands at the end of the month and feel satisfied.

But just imagine how can one do the same job, meet the same people and sit in front of the same laptop slogging for hours for thirty years of his life? Wouldn’t boredom set in? Wouldn’t we feel isolated and stagnant? Agreed one will have family at some time, but then you would only spend 4 hours of active participation with them on the working days.

That is where my parents win, our parents win! They are the ones who are truly successful, who are truly living their lives, who enjoy their sleep as much as they enjoy getting up for a jog. I opine that one of the major reasons for this is that they enjoy what they are doing. The business clients keep on changing almost daily, there is something new to be done daily, the developments in the surrounding need to be kept a watch on! They know all the neighbours, in fact the whole colony and vice versa. They can just drop in at any of their friend’s place anytime. They are the one who get invites for parties, functions and marriages….and they can even attend quite a few of them. They are the ones who enjoy the goodwill of their friends, neighbours, clients, business stakeholders. They are well-conversant with almost everyone – doodhwala, paperwala, kiranewala, presswala, sweeper, maid and clients, friends, relatives, neighbours, city heavy weights!!!! Do we even know the name of the person who drops in paper at our door daily? Do we ever talk to him anytime, except when he takes initiative for collecting the bill? Forget that, do we know who stays on the floor above us or how many members are there in his family?

In a B-school, everyone told us NETWORKING is the key…..whatever you do - study, learn, unlearn, copy, paste etc, the only thing that will be with you is your network and that will count your networth. But then, whatever we do, we will never be able to match the networking skills of our parents - and in turn their networth which is anyways invaluable! That’s the beauty of being your own boss, doing your own business, staying in a small city – you can enjoy almost every pleasure in the world! And all this manifests in our upbringing – the manners, the values, the importance of relationships, the significance of respecting people, the pride of belonging to a place where you feel wanted and respected and loved! Many times I wonder, when I look around, will we ever be able to give our children such values????