I met this man in the lift - boy I must say, shy and averting my eyes; was it because he has red shot eyes? may be worried people might think he is drunk? I smiled at him and said in general friendship 'what happenned you haven't slept for long'? He started replying in his broken English and Hindi, so asked him are you Tamil? Ama sir, he said in Tamil and then went on to talk.
He had a bundle of new newspapers to distribute (do new and news have anything to do with each other - thought news comes from north east wet and south?) - says yes haven't slept much. Why? he says he sleeps from 11.30 pm to 3.30 am on 6 days a week and then catches up with sleep on Friday afternoons. Why again? He has this newspaper distribution to do in the night and then has a day time job. How is that possible for long term, wont he die? He gives an account of his expenses and what will be left if he does one job - with this money I send home, how can they survive? They are his family, not wife and children only, his brothers and sisters and parents. He was looking very young so I do not even know whether he is married and he works like this for his own son; most likely not. They need to survive, his people back home; so he has to earn more - get the point, not to get wealthy and invest more and more like other rich and rising types - sustain and carry on; to do that, I sleep fro 3 hours a night. Imagine, even after 30 years, he will just be doing sustenance.
Agreed hard work never kills anybody, but why do people feel so responsible? what drives people to be responsible above levels of endurance? What is wrong if he does his 3.30am to 9 am job of ditributing paper and sleeps, liesures, loves - whatever normal people do? Why should be take responsibility for his family and endure this hardship, just so that they can live well?
I am not sure whether a statement excessive responsibility with commitment and excessive guilt are both counter productive to the self will be correct.
We watch such cases and we do nothing; we can do nothing. But then what can one do apart from sympathy; and be nice. If we try to go beyond that and offer some different job or help in getting another miserable slot somewhere else, we could unscramble his organized effort and stability. We can't play Gods, but we can ask God why?
What is it God? Karma? Fate? YOUR will?
He had a bundle of new newspapers to distribute (do new and news have anything to do with each other - thought news comes from north east wet and south?) - says yes haven't slept much. Why? he says he sleeps from 11.30 pm to 3.30 am on 6 days a week and then catches up with sleep on Friday afternoons. Why again? He has this newspaper distribution to do in the night and then has a day time job. How is that possible for long term, wont he die? He gives an account of his expenses and what will be left if he does one job - with this money I send home, how can they survive? They are his family, not wife and children only, his brothers and sisters and parents. He was looking very young so I do not even know whether he is married and he works like this for his own son; most likely not. They need to survive, his people back home; so he has to earn more - get the point, not to get wealthy and invest more and more like other rich and rising types - sustain and carry on; to do that, I sleep fro 3 hours a night. Imagine, even after 30 years, he will just be doing sustenance.
Agreed hard work never kills anybody, but why do people feel so responsible? what drives people to be responsible above levels of endurance? What is wrong if he does his 3.30am to 9 am job of ditributing paper and sleeps, liesures, loves - whatever normal people do? Why should be take responsibility for his family and endure this hardship, just so that they can live well?
I am not sure whether a statement excessive responsibility with commitment and excessive guilt are both counter productive to the self will be correct.
We watch such cases and we do nothing; we can do nothing. But then what can one do apart from sympathy; and be nice. If we try to go beyond that and offer some different job or help in getting another miserable slot somewhere else, we could unscramble his organized effort and stability. We can't play Gods, but we can ask God why?
What is it God? Karma? Fate? YOUR will?
Here's an interesting question: what is the purpose of asking the question? I mean, why analyse this guy's motivation to do two jobs with 4 hours of sleep? He does it, and that's the reality. Why explain it? The problem is that we treat this as a question that requires examining, is it not?
ReplyDeleteI'm not being frivoulous. I would like to really examine, together, if you will, why this question requires answering?
Shall we try?