Leisure
When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in the suburbs of Chennai I had plenty of time. Many times it was just me and my grandparents at home. There was no pressure at school to succeed. The teachers would just teach the subjects to the best of their abilities. Some of us learnt the subjects with great curiosity. My school was a little isolated from the ones in the city. There was no competition among schools to be the best. There was a lot of opportunity to play sport. There was not much money in hand to spend but there was happiness. Internally there was calm and quiet.
Yesterday I saw a post on LinkedIn. It talked about how women don’t have leisure anymore. They have an image of working always and they want to maintain that. They feel guilty if they take time off for leisure. I see the point in it but whether or not we have leisure depends on our lifestyle. We are living in an increasingly work oriented life. We hear about burn out or imposter syndrome. I hadn’t heard about these even thirty years back. There has been so much change in the last forty years. We all seem to go after money. We want to achieve and be accomplished. We want a career and some of us have more than one career in a lifetime. We want patents and publications. Just last month I had lunch with a friend who is a professor at IIT, Madras, a well-known institution in India. There is comparison and what not in the IIT society, he says. On weekends the professors, line up to a nearby foreign hotel for food and drinks. Salaries are good these days. But not publications. It is a very Western model of life here in India. What is an Indian view of life? It is not clear. Cultures are quite mixed up these days. Leisure is in the mind. It is only in leisure that there is learning said the great J Krishnamurthy. When will there be leisure in the mind? Leisure is not a lack of energy. In fact the body is quietly active. There is a relaxed feeling. There is no overpowering self wanting to do things. The mind is not full of knowledge. There is no thinking. There is a great deal of receptivity in the heart. There is no distraction to play a sport. There is no excitement to watch the TV. There is no desire to eat or sleep. The body is quite alert. There may be a baby crying but there is no urgency to attend. There is a book to read. Leisure is not absence of chores or a downtime. It is a descent of calmness. There is no urgency to solve the world’s problems. Yes there may be poverty in the world but it can wait. Today problems like global warming and racism are in everyone’s mind. That is not leisure for sure. Perhaps the mind is a bit meditative. Watching the surroundings, the birds chirping, the squirrel running around, the vegetable vendor yelling – it is all part of life. There is no distinction between life and love. Or between you and the other. There may be a different kind of enjoyment. Certainly a different energy. There is no change in the mind.