Friday, June 20, 2008

Boredom - A problem

Today is friday. Weekend is going to start in a couple of hours. This weekend should not go waste like last weekend. I have to do something interesting. What shall I do? Shall I go for a trip? Or a movie? Or read a novel? Or invite friends for dinner? Lots of thoughts peep into the mind. What are we actually trying to plan for? To pass the weekend without just sleeping, eating and doing laundry. So we are searching for an interesting way of passing time during the weekends. Is this the same scenario for all of us?
As a child (say upto school days), we had school, home works, records, assignments, unit tests, charts, scrap book, annual day, sports day, cultural day, etc. We had our own personal life, where we had many friends around the house to play a lot of games. We rarely used to feel bored because we had a time table for us throughout. We had sports wear a day in the week, saturday is half-a-day. Independence day, Children's day, etc. were enthusiastic. We had many friends at school, we played, we helped mom at home, we had life with us. Were every weekends a bore-weekend or uninteresting ones?
We grew and went to college (Intermediate), where we rarely played. Entire focus was on getting admission in a good engineering/medical college. Classes for 6 days a week. Every sunday there was a test and evaluation. Loads of syllabii. No time to complete them, so no question of boredom.
We went to the college (Engg./Med.). We had 2 semesters a year. Apart from internals and external exams, we had sports, ragging, projects, records, competitive exams, coachings, campus placements, extra curricular activities, paper presentations, inter-college events, DJs, etc. We had our friends coming home or we going to their place, etc. for combined studies. We had lots of fears and dreams for future. Also there was a lot of syllabus for competitive as well as academic exams.
We got a job. We joined some company. We are now earning. Also we are learning (since what we have learnt in the college is different). Now that we have money with us, this is the time when we can realise our dreams. Since watching a movie during studies was almost a sin (inorder not to deviate from studies), we now have all the freedom to watch TV, movies, read novels, learn music/dance/some kind of arts, go to gym, travel to places, etc. Though we have all this freedom, money and the interest in us, we feel bored many times. Why?
Though at home or out of place, we start living individually. Since we are grown up to the level of earning money, no body forces us to do anything particular. It is all our will, wish and interest that we have. Even then, we feel bored. Actually we feel to go back to the school days when we never used to complain about boredom. Lets see the reasons why we feel so.
Life has become very easy. Today, we are able to afford to purchase every thing that we want. We have the capacity to pursue all our interests. This was not the case before 10 years. A decade ago, life was different. Lets see what changed in these 10 years.
1. Communication: How many people had mobile phones or internet a decade ago? Land line telephone was the supreme privilege that one started to have by the end of the yester-decade. One can communicate to any body in the world today very easily. Even then we feel bored.
2. Transport: The number of 2-wheelers or 4-wheelers have increased at an exponential rate in these 10 years. Also the air-travel has become cheaper and affordable by a common man. One can travel to any place they wish to. Even then we feel bored.
3. Entertainment: Television channels grew in hundreds. We have the music players like iPod, mp3 players, VCD, DVD players, laptops, iMax theatres, etc. Even then we feel bored.
4. Life Style: Today certain commodities like refrigerator, washing machine, micro wave oven, etc. have become a common man's appliances. Even then we feel bored.
and so on... As the time progressed, we find that the technology made our lives faster. Communication, transport, life style, entertainment...all are available at our say. There is no pining for a commodity. Also since the physical amount of work has reduced to a greater extent, there is not much work left for us to do as the machines themselves take care of. All the day time activity that one had a decade ago has been reduced to a large extent, making available a lot of free time, to pass. Almost all the men and women in this era are working. Although we have seen women working before, but the number of working women has increased and the working men:women ratio is nearly 1. When at work, people feel like being at home and pursue their hobbies and interests; When at home, they don't have the time to take care of themselves. Are people happy with the lives they have? Are they enjoying the job they are doing? I feel NO. People are working for money. Some people work just because they are not sure what to do if they dont work. But both the reasons eventually lead to boredom.
Though our older generations had more number of house wives, they hardly complained about boredom and they were happy because they accepted the fact that they have to be at home and carry out the duties of a housewife. Today, most of the woman are not ready to take up the typical housewife jobs. Hence lots of tensions. Though they have money, they dont have time, energy to enjoy, because the houses these days have become nuclear. If it were joint families, the work would be distributed among all the people of the home and everybody would enjoy. But today, since people want more private space for themselves, they avoid being together. Therefore everybody has his/her own living.
Why were we happy during the school days? We could study happily because our goal was to get good marks, get knowledge. No worries about the home. Because there was mother at home, who took care of all the things like cooking, cleaning, washing our clothes, etc. We never bothered about food, because we used to get food at regular intervals. So there was focus. Today, many children at home feel bored because they dont see their parents till late in the night, because both their parents work. During the olden days, atleast there used to be grand parents at home so that the children never felt alone. But today, how many couples want to stay with their parents?
I dont say that women should not work. But one should think of the reason why they are working. If it is for money without which there is no food, then its not a problem. If it is for excess money, it is not worth because they hardly enjoy. One has to decide what one wants from their lives. If they want happiness, raise the children properly, be with them, spend time with family members, take care of home and husband, its better to stay at home. If its only for excess money, then its not worth.
Now, what is excess money? Money never can be excess as long as you have the list of wishes to be fulfilled. This is a very arguable topic because it is upto the individual to decide what is necessary for him/her. But definitely, the yester years people were more happier than us without many of the things that we have today. They were contended with what they had.
But for todays generation, with the raising prices for education, house, etc. definitely a family in a city would need Rs.15K for comfort living. But if one wants to purchase a own house, then both need to work hard. So there is a necessity in this generation for both the people to work. This leads to children being raised in baby care centres. This also leads to children being alone at home, both the parents struggling to work at home as well as at work, thus leading to more stress and boredom.

3 comments:

srikanth sonti said...

Good read visu, i enjoyed it.

Unknown said...

good article... I enjoyed it.

Gayatri said...

Hi Vishwa, I have read all your posts .All the articles are well-written. Request you to continue penning down your thought provoking thoughts. Waiting for many new posts and many more sequels from you :)