Perspective - Never lose

Work

The security guards, manning every apartment in Bangalore... I can't begin to imagine their lives. If you live in a typical Bangalore apartment (as I did), chances are it is manned by just two guards, one in day and one in night. 12 hours each. Bad, but not so much you say. After all, don't we all work 10-12 hour days. Yes, of course. Except that we also get our weekends. Now these guards, they get their day off too, but that means the other guard has to be on duty for a full 24 hours - and if you do the math, you will see they dont quite get a full day off, its just a half day off, every week.

Every time, I felt I was overworked, or that my work was mundane, looking and greeting my guards helped me put things in perspective.

Family

You cannot spend enough time with... And yet, we all know every relationship has their ups and downs. Life can get monotonous and so can being in a relationship. When we were young, we thought our parents were too much drag. Now that we are the parents, we often have our own issues. And yet, any day I have to leave my family to travel on business, for even a few days, it seems like forever. On my way back, I literally run the last few steps. Is distance good for relationships? I don't know. I suppose its like elastic - the further you pull, the more force there is between the ends to get together. But pull it more and it just breaks... If your work doesn't come in the way of you spending every night with your family, thank your stars and count yourself as the luckiest few.

Career

There was a (profane) line I picked up while watching a Hindi movie sometime back - jiski chalti hai, uski ga*nd par mombatti jalti hai. Loosely translated - people with authority often have their ass on fire.
The more I watch people around me with real authority, the more I see them being in constant stress. It is amazing how there is no end to this cycle. Authority breeds paranoia. Everybody has a boss to please regardless of who you are. Even CEOs and entrepreneurs have boards or investors to answer to. So while you go for that promotion and bask in that limelight, remember, as you get closer to the flame, the temperature only increases.

By the way, here is a closing thought experiment - what happens if all the farmers (and meat producers), world over, decide to go on a strike for a year? If they plan it right, they will have enough grain to last them for the strike year, which means anybody who is not directly involved in production of food (60-70% of world's population) is in trouble - people in manufacturing and services economy - people who are relatively well off today. Because there is no food being sold, no one is buying any cars, laptops/tablets or even gold. Money loses value and we go back to barter system. Hmmm, how much grain do you think that code or presentation will buy you.

Perspective is precious - don't lose it.