 |
| Walking bare feet on the grass has been the best Part of our stay at the ITC Sonar where the service seems to be uncharacteristically shaky this time |
‘It is difficult to know when to stop or take a break if you are self-employed and do not have anyone to report to, but it is important to take a break. Look at the Kolkata trip as a holiday. Do not get stressed about not being able to do work stuff. There will be enough time for that later,’ said my therapist during our online session the morning after K & I had landed in Kolkata.
I was a bit bummed as I was unable go to central Kolkata that day to shoot at its Mughlai restaurants to make a video. Something I had planned to do as a part of R&D for a project I was working on.
The best laid plans of men and mice often go awry, said the poet. I ended up with a back pain after I landed in Kolkata. The inception of which I suspect was at the old Mumbai airport. You have to pull your suitcase up a steep slope to enter the terminal. I was scowling at the prospect of doing so, when an overzealous security personnel called me out and asked me to lift my suitcase and put it in the baggage scanner, bring it down and then lift it up across a few steps and go in. My suitcase was rather heavy as I was carrying winter clothes. I walked towards the check in counter. I felt the back go ping. Uh oh!
The back pain which came with me to Kolkta stayed with me overnight. I had to cancel my shoot plans. The service at the ITC Sonar this time was not up to its usual standards. All of which put me in a rather sour mood before getting into my therapy session. As always, I came out of it feeling better thanks to the perspective my therapist gave me.
I met K for a coffee once she was done with work. I told her about being unable to go to the city because of the pain and feeling upset because of this.
‘But why? It’s a holiday! You are the boss. Sanction your own leave. You don’t have to go and shoot,’ she said.
‘Funny you say that,’ I replied. ‘That’s exactly what S (my therapist) said in our session.’
‘I can draw boundaries at work,’ added K. ‘For you, unless you decide to take a break, there is no boundary between work and life.’
‘Hmm, perhaps you may be able to draw a boundary though given your workload, I doubt if you ever can,’ I quipped. ‘But I know what you mean.’
 |
| My podcast makes no difference to my bank balance. Is that ‘work’? |
The way I define ‘work’ for myself is influenced by what we studied in physics in school. Work is equal to force into distance, which means you have to cover a certain distance to have for it to count as work. Influenced by this, I had till recently defined ‘work’ to be activity whose results reflect in my bank account.
But what happens if you are running on a treadmill? Is that work? You have not covered a distance after all.
Perhaps the definition of work is not as black and white as it’s made out to be?
 |
| At times work is about purpose/ impact |
The way I looked at the trip changed. I met my family and friends. K and I got some, even if very little, alone time too. I walked barefoot on the grass after breakfast everyday. Soaked in the tub. My back pain disappeared by the second day.
It’s Thursday. Two more nights left before we leave. I’d written the bulk of the post on Monday using a dictation app for the first time in my life. Then switched off. I decided to complete and publish it tonight. That did entail quite a bit of work.
I am tired happy.
Tired because of the long distances travelled in meeting folks. My disturbed sleep the previous night. The less than perfect hotel experience. Rooms with no smart TV. Being shifted to one with it after multiple requests and then being shifted to one without due to VIP guest arrival. Breakdown of communication between service departments – housekeeping, room service etc, patchy food and tired looking buffet counters…every bit adds up when you are in a 6 day long stay.
Happy because of the time spent with family and friends.
Most importantly, as K said, ‘thanks to S and me, at least you took a break and didn’t fret about missing work.’
Nah, I didn’t. I just miss the boys!
PS: This post is dedicated to my fellow freelancers who feel as confused about work life boundaries. Maybe we can learn from each other.
