The Anti-Office Syndrome

Monday Blues? Hate the work-week? Keep looking forward to the day ending even before it’s started? Day dreaming of earning money off a hillside café? You are suffering from “the Anti-office syndrome”

Let’s face it. For us middle class folks in the late 20’s, we would be looking at trying to make a living at least for the next 20 more years. Some of us will quit the corporate sham and start up something of their own – while a majority of us will continue with the drudgery for most of our adult life.

There is no escaping it. But what we don’t realize is a lot of the so-called drudgery that we call work is often brought upon us ourselves. We’re constantly measuring ourselves with standards set by others that eventually lead to the demise of the optimism that we had when we started working as freshers.

So here’s a ready (WIP) reckoner for all of us – one that reminds us daily wage earners that there is more to life, than an occasional work-day blues

1.      Don’t compare. One of the biggest mistakes that we make is making comparisons with other peers/superiors, anyone. What we tend to forget is that whatever it is that working for them does not mean that it would work for us too. Let others be. Focus on yourself and your work – figure out ways of doing it better in context of your own abilities. Comparing your salary, appraisal status, etc only disturbs you and you alone. It does not affect the other person you are trying so hard to bring down.

2.       Stay away from office politics. Often, most of the so-called office politics are created by us, stemming from the above stated point. However tempting it may seem, the more embroiled you get in it, the worse your work-day blues become.  Remember, the guy who’s doing well and is respected most is the one who focuses only on his work

3.       Respect. Everyone. At every position. It does not matter the number of experience you have or don’t have. Everyone working around deserves the same kind of respect that you demand for yourself

4.       Appreciate. It’s OK if it wasn't your idea that got through. Learn from the one that did and appreciate it’s owner. One pat on the back is not going to make you a loser.

5.       It’s not personal. Its just work. A part of your life. Not your whole life. Have other hobbies that help you take your mind off work. Help you detach and unwind. Constantly fretting over how to get into your boss’s good books is not going to land you that promotion. Similarly, not every comment made, every feedback given is aimed at you personally. Always remember to keep it within the realms of your professional life

6.       Have your priorities cleared. What is it that you are working for? What personal/ professional objectives do you want to achieve from your current role/profile, etc? having a clear objective will help you focus better and allow you to slide through the tough times at work. Because at the end of the day, what you do will matter, rest everything else will become incidental

These are just some ways of keeping the work blues at bay. What are some ways you stay focused on work?

Book Review: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Accidentally discovered this book while vacationing in the hills. A fantasy that puts scientific knowledge and application on the forefront, the book is a must-read for fantasy lovers. Don’t judge the book by the badly made movie – The Golden Compass. The book, fist in the trilogy of “His Dark Materials” is an enjoyable read. Without giving out much on the plot – the book is about a young feisty girl Lyra and how she embarks on a journey to save her friend, eventually leading up to her discovering a whole new world. 

Will definitely give the book a 4/5 for plot, character and eventual climax that builds the foundations for the second book.

Give it a read.

Book Review: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

Loved reading this book. Quite an unexpected thriller. My first Japanese fiction.

Quick summary - a single mother kills her exploitative ex-husband and gets the unexpected help from her infatuated neighbor (who is a math teacher). All of this happens in the first few chapters of the book. What happens next is how they try and cover the murder leading the police on a wild goose chase.
While on the surface, the book is a thriller with an excellent plot, it loses out on narrative because of shoddy translation. The book reads like a teen novel and the characters lose their depth and appear much amateurish than the author may have intended it to be.

All in all, a 7/10 and a must read for all thriller fans! Have already bought Keigo Higoshino's Salvation of Saint, which is next on my reading list

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,


and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you


all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,


the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

             - Derek Walcott

Levis Go Forth Legacy Commercial

Your life is your life

don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

Be on the watch

There are ways out.

There is a light somewhere.

It may not be much light but

it beats the darkness

Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.

Know them.

Take them.

You can’t beat death but

you can beat death in life, sometimes.

And the more often you learn to do it,

the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.

Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous

the gods wait to delight

in you.

Inspiration

Where do you go looking for inspiration?

Inside a book? At a mall? The lyrics of your favorite song? In your dysfunctional relationships? Alcohol? Random drunken conversation with strangers? Your past successes? Failures? A facebook status update or a twitter feed? Gazing into the dark night? Or walking aimlessly on a busy street? The internet? Google? Observing people or ignoring their existence? Questioning your motives? Or letting things be? God? Religion? Going back in the past? Or trying to control the future? Staying up in a sleepless night? Listening to deafening music? Inside a movie hall? Amidst a crisis? By being spontaneous? Or planning your whole life? Doing what others are busy imitating?

There is no real answer, is there?

A Little Piece of Heaven

In search of perfection and happy endings, how often do we look past the seemingly meaningless yet short abrupt run-ups to exhilarating highs?

I wonder how we survive then, if we keep giving these unknown alleys a miss? We’re so scared of what we will lose that we don’t stop to think of what we will probably experience if we did have the courage to walk into the dark and twisted side of the world.

Caught up in living, we forget about letting go. Being real and feeling, for once, what we really want to feel. It’s not that simple, but then, it wouldn’t be half as fun if it were.

We deserve that piece of heaven. Even if it lasts for a moment.