Being UNEMPLOYED

These days people having been taking a dig at me for not being a part of the mainstream, active labour force … From being sneered upon to being looked at with sympathy, I have seen it all and on most occasions I play along for I know exactly what prompted me to give up a glorious career and sit at home.

Let me begin by furnishing my credentials … I am a post graduate in law with a decent score and about 5 years of post qualification work experience spanning across two of the largest law firms in this country and a leading investment bank. I have been working ever since the age of 13 and I have worked, interned, studied and participated in extra-curricular activities all at the same time. I am 33 and given my obsession with financial independence I started working with the onset of my teenage. There have been occasions I have taught people older to me both in age and in experience … I have worked and I have worked hard … So, at this stage of my life when I desire to discover my true calling and the need to search “the” cause I am passionate about, I should be encouraged and not looked at with disdain. Some people are fortunate to merge their passion with their profession, others segregate their passion from their profession and make time for both and there are others who have not had the opportunity to discover their true selves because they were caught up in a web of circumstances which they neither chose nor wove.

Each person has her/his own life trajectory and to compare any two journeys is not only myopic but unfair to the person and her/his graph. I am out of work because I want to pursue something I love and by the grace of Almighty I am not compelled to go to work every morning for the sake of bills. The motivation to perform should be love … Love for what you do and the joy of doing it; everything else is secondary and immaterial.

One might work for money but what one does has to be a selection made by eliminating the options which one loves and favours the least … Money is indispensable but what puzzles me is why is passion not equally indispensable. I am not at all surprised when I see most 20 somethings undergoing therapy or battling against issues at work or slipping into depression because their work is not a source of joy for them … If one spends 8 hours a day at work and works for 5 days a week, one spends 40 hours out of 168 hours hating what one does … This is close to over 20 per cent of your week!! You spend over one-fifth of your time at a place you dont like, with people whom you judge and vice versa and at accomplishing something which you inherently detest for something which is your opinion on most occasions “inadequate” and you call me unsuccessful … WOAH!!

I dont blame most people who see me as an unsuccessful, burden of treasury, blood-sucking homemaker because you know what? I AM ONE!! And I am PROUD of it … At least I am not pretending to be busy with something I am completely clueless about …

I wake up in the morning at 11 because I can afford to do so … I have a leisurely breakfast in bed and yes … I DO IT EVERY SINGLE DAY!! And then I decide how I want to treat my day … On some days I read for hours … On others, I take to writing and some are a combination of the two. I go for long walks in the evening and I love playing with street dogs and I absolutely adore sunsets  (Back in my 18 hour a day work schedule I had forgotten how sunsets look like) …

While money is important for me, it is not an integral part of me … I keep myself afloat and not lust after the next swanky car or expensive gadget … I eat at home on most days and I dont enjoy alcohol … Movies arent my favourite form of entertainment and hence no cinema halls for me! I love reading and thanks to the recent “copyleft” movement, most books are available online (you can clandestinely check with me and I shall divulge my sources) … AND I AM HAPPY!!

I had always imagined myself to be a typical type A personality who loves shuttling between meetings, doing high profile business deals and jet-setting through her life … Well, I did that for 5 years and trust me they were the most depressing years of my life. Despite leading what most people would label as a “successful” life, the sense of being successful always eluded me … And how ironic it is that today  despite sitting at home and performing all the household chores which I once looked down upon, I feel successful.

I am not a vociferous supporter of “vegetating at home” (like most people call it) … On the contrary, I encourage people to go out and work … But what I object to is working for the wrong reason … Work because you love what you are doing and not because you want the feel validated. If money is your motivation then please be honest about it and then stop pretending that you love your work … If money is the reason you are spending your precious youth and 20% of your life working then dont say you love your work for in that case you only love your job and you are not your job … You are a much bigger and formidable entity …

I am not vegetating at home … I am searching. The insurmountable dissatisfaction around us exists because people never spent time searching …

I am unemployed because I refuse to do anything which I completely, madly, crazily, fanatically, hopelessly, obsessively dont love … My work has to give meaning to my existence and not take away from me the joy I am entitled to!!

Heres unemployed Sugarsatchet wishing joyful employment to all … Much love …