“Do you know what I did for a living?”
Papa asked in his somewhat annoyingly pompous way, his eyebrows arched as he peered at me over the rim of his glasses.
“Of course I do Dad ! I mean, what do you mean whether I know what you did for a living”
“No really, do you really know what I did for a living?”
“Oh come on Dad what do you mean?” I snapped..
It had been one of those beastly Mondays at work… the early morning conference call turned out to be useless since most of the key people invited decided not to join in. The mid-day review meeting was a disaster with each of the project parameters being in the red, and the end of the day was capped with an excruciatingly drawn out 2 hour long commute to cover a distance less than 15 kms.
And on top of that, she has not been taking my calls since our argument on Sunday night. I mean I know I was the one who missed out on our date, but what do you do when your boss tells you to deliver something like, Now? But yeah, she does not want to understand. She is hurt, she says, and well, I am not going to call again.
Women…
So I come back to my apartment and joined my father for a drink… hoping for a much needed respite from my day. And he asks me with a drink in hand, if I knew what he did for a living !
“Sheesh Dad, you were a banker. That’s what you did for a living. Everyone and their uncle knows that !”
“Right. So I am sure you remember the award for best employee I was given in 1977 when I was posted at the Jaisalmer branch?” Asked my father, in the still slightly patronizing way I so detested…
“Dad, I was not even born then, how could I remember that?”
“Fair enough… then what about the time when I was so stressed out at work that I was working late nights for a promotion that did not work out so well… this would have been at Aurangabad… you would have been 16 then”
“You seemed to work late nights pretty much all the time Papa, Mama used to make us go to bed even before you returned home on most days”
“Aaah, right. You were asleep most of the times when I came back from work.”
“Do you remember Mr Kapoor, my colleague?”
“Kapoor Uncle? Sure, he worked with you at the Mumbai office”
“You remember how he kept me in the dark about the training at New York and booked a spot for himself?”
“How would I know what happened at your office Dad? In any case these things happened more than a decade ago!”
“And yet you say; that you know what I did for a living”
I remained quiet… not really sure what my father was driving at.
“Am sure you did not know who were the guys I competed with, compared myself with. Or whether I was a good employee, or a bad one at that. Or whether my appraisals were glowing testimonials to my efficiency or the complete opposite of that!”
I shook my head and shrugged…
“When a son does not bother what his father really did at work, do you think anyone else really gives a damn? I see you come home each night consumed by something or the other that happened at work. You compare and contrast and think of nothing else but how dissatisfied you are with your job.”
“I am selling my spirit for money you say !” Exclaimed my father raising his glass.
“Ten years down the line no one will care what you accomplished on the job today… not even you. Do you even remember what your great grandfather did for a living? He was a very successful lawyer just so you know. Do you think that mattered to you ? Ever ?”
“We spend our whole lives building careers that no one really cares for except us. And then we convince ourselves that we do it for others? That our success makes us better for our family, for our kids… Really?”
“I may have been a banker or a politician, but at the end of it you would still not have cared… and we would still be drinking together at the end of a long tiring day”
“Had you been a politician, we would have definitely been drinking better stuff than this rum Dad”
My father smiled as he got up…
“Think about it…Do you need a refill?”
“Sure” I said as I scrambled to get up from the bean bag , “I just need to call someone before that.”
“Work?” He asked me, with that famous arching of the eyebrows again.
“No” I smiled as I dialled her number, “Something more important that”
Sussegad.... 
Eye opener!
a simple story that shook me up, and forced me to think.
Is it coz we take family for granted? or
instead of prioritizing family n work .. we take everything as it comes.
may be engrossin in work 24 hrs makes us feel we are ‘the superman’ solving the world’s crisis, atlas holding the world…
thoughts are rushing through, thanks for breaking the dam 🙂
Thanks Tushar…. being engrossed in work 24 hours a day would surely make one very tired superman !
This post should be circulated all over the web…forcing people to introspect! What is it that we want from our life?? Does success in life imply only a successful career..and a fat pay cheque? Blinded by the materialistic pleasures..are we actually losing out on the small joys that actually make our life worth living? This is like a wake up call! High time that we set our priorities right! As a certain Mr. Akhtar says…”zindagi milegi na dobara!”
Thanks Geetika. Incidentally, that certain Mr. Akhtar is an alumni of the same school where I spent 12 years of my life… Colvin Taluqdars’ College Lucknow !
Wow..That’s so cool!
And that ( read LKO connection) probably explains my liking for your writing style..My dad comes from Lucknow..I have some lovely childhood memories of that place!
Ah! The same eternal question of our times…. are we having the right priorities? 🙂
And nicely put…. made me think for some time …. am I having my priorities right
Rahul, I wish there were easy answers for questions like these… At times I think I have got it right, only to think the next day that I am all screwed up ! And thanks 🙂
Toucheeee!!
Ashish, you should try your hand at writing screenplays…you would have plenty of audiences like me 🙂
Done. All I need to do is to get a financier for my movies then !
Well, I hear ya 🙂
I worked this weekend, you know. Not cause I had some deadline the following week. Just cause I had nothing else better to do.
I called no one, met no one… somewhere along the way I must have lost my social self…
I need to retrospect & in-trospect.
That’ll be my next blog.
Thanks Ashish!
Thank You ! And I hope to see an update on your blog very very soon !
I don’t know whether to be happy about lazing around all day, drawing whenever I feel like it or go get a job in some studio…:D…good one btw, mate
Thanks…
Your comment made me insanely jealous btw as I sip insipid coffee in my beige colored cubicle
I can bet that this is what half of the working world has felt and yet it takes a man of courage to spell it out in honest words…
I just love your work!
Thanks a lot Arpit !
Very touching and very true.. I am married only for a few months and i really wonder at times if i am keeping the right work-life balance.. I was totally confused.. But this story gave me a different direction to think about..
It is so true that neither my parents nor my husband cares for what happens at my workplace, yet they are the ones who take all my work frustration.. It isn’t fair at all !!
Prabhjot, thanks for sharing. And welcome to our blog, am glad that you liked what I wrote…
Too good, reminds me of the song..
seene mein jalan aankhon mein tufaan saa kyon hain ?
is shahar mein har shaks pareshaan saa kyon hain ?
Thanks Animesh !
Nice read.. I second whatever has been said.
Keep writing 🙂
Hey Anurag, Thanks ! You have been away for some time 🙂
Its so well written & actuallly gave me a chance to rethink that why do I crib everyday after work at home.
Thanks Ashish
A good one…..
Sometimes we really forget to pick on the basic that mom and dad talk about in general conversations…
We have so many things to learn…
Continue writing…..
Snehal ! Welcome to our blog and thanks for subscribing !
Well yes, we all do have a lot to learn from the people around us… if only we start ‘listening’ !
Ashish
this is some post sir (am from kec, no don’t bother you won’t know me 🙂
not sure if it’s beer or something else… but really really liked this post…keep bombing this stuff , I say 🙂
Nice Read.Simple Cute yet making us pause & think for a moment.
We tend to slog & prepare for early retirement,not understanding we are sacrifising present for this.
Thought Proviking!! Enjoyed