Passion…unbridled

Should you shorten to four days your work week

To find the elusive work-life balance you seek

Would working fewer days make you more productive

Would it help you a more well-rounded life live?

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Or would it just lengthen every working day

And make it harder for you to step away

From work during the three-day weekend

Would you work more from home than you intend?

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These are hard questions- the five-day work week has been

A feature that this country for decades has seen

Anything outside this norm seems to need

Justification to prove its merit indeed

Then you realize, in many countries the norm happens to be

A six-day work week- compared to that, five days seems heavenly

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Burnout in modern life is a huge issue

No one knows the right thing to do

How much should one work is a pressing question to address

Does the solution to our troubles actually lie in working less?

In a country with reasonable political stability

You would not imagine a citizen becoming a refugee…

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Yet there are thousands being forced to flee

Their homes these days, alarmingly

Driven not by political turmoil but by change in climate

Global warming increasingly tends to precipitate

Wildfires and floods, tornadoes and hurricanes

That are unfolding at a scale unprecedented and insane

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These natural disasters have tragically created

Climate refugees, whose numbers are estimated

To rise to over a billion in the next twenty-five years

Where would the displaced go, is a question we all fear

As parts of our planet increasing inhabitable become

“Climate migration” would become the survival strategy for some..

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Global warming is a phenomenon in which we

Have played a role, by burning fossil fuels indiscriminately

Climate migration is a pressing problem for this century

That we have to tackle at a global level, collectively

Those who advise you to not get stressed when you have a deadline to meet

Have probably never worked in situations where there are projects to complete

Within a timeline strictly defined, often quite narrow

Working fast and making quick decisions is inherently stressful, you know

But there is a silver lining to the cloud of stress

Once you reach the finish line, the relief of success

Is profound- you know both the stakes and the reward are high

The sense of accomplishment is exhilarating and that is why

You consciously choose to expose yourself to this stress

This stress is vital to your progress..

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If you never felt stressed in a situation with high stakes

You would not be able to complete your work with minimal mistakes

As you are required to do- this “eustress” is positive stress indeed

It provides you with the motivation that you need

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Stress gets a bad press because it seems to be in excess

To the point of overwhelming us and causing distress

Not all stress is bad, especially when short-lived

Our best performance eustress encourages us to give..

The perfect hostess you want to be

You’ve grown up on a diet steady

Of women’s magazines glorifying the art

Of hosting picture-perfect parties, you want to host one a shade apart

From a generic version that follows a predictable template

You want to create exotic dishes and then plate

In a manner innovative, you scour the web for inspiration

Take your cues from different sources and devise an amalgamation

Of various ideas to throw a party that should impress

All your guests, and be a great success

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In trying to bring unique ideas to the (actual) table

You’ve stressed yourself out, you are unable

To execute your ideas calmly, many errors you make

To add to your stress- your reputation as a hostess is at stake

Finally you fall back on patterns tried and tested

You cook familiar dishes, not the ones in learning which time you have invested..

You decorate for the party with old stuff that you possess

You wait for your guests, thinking the gathering would not be a success…

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When your guests come, you greet them warmly

You are not distracted or busy arranging stuff, you are actually free

You mingle with your guests, and everyone appears

To be having a good time, your worst fears

Remain unrealized, the party is considered a success

The decor might not have been instagram-worthy, but you were a great hostess

A brutal self-examination has made me realize

I’ve been making too many excuses- it is not a surprise

That I am staying stuck in my old ways

I have been spending my days

Avoiding challenges, finding every excuse

To run away from discomfort, I seem to choose

The path of least resistance, the easiest way out

I have not made much progress, no doubt..

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I start with the blanket excuse that time I lack

To complete a task- but eventually find a hack

To complete what I need to, in an unconventional way

I shall count that as a win for today..

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I need to be cognizant of the excuses that I make

To fall into a slippery slope of inaction, much it does not take

To replace each excuse with a strategy I shall attempt

To face challenges head on instead of finding excuses is my intent

(Jeff Bezos talks about it, and dislikes the term work-life balance)

The mirage that everyone seems to chase

Is to achieve the elusive work-life balance these days..

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Balance in life is particularly hard to find

In different directions you try to force your mind

To focus, but the mind does not work that way

Both at work and at home, equal attention it cannot simultaneously pay

Therefore the scales seem tipped to one side at any moment

You can only balance them to a limited extent..

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Work and life are in a circle bound

What affects one comes around

To affect the other, but you need not devote

Equal time and energy to both

As the phrase “work-life balance” implies

Instead, the important thing to realize

Is that whatever fills your cup, you should do

Be it at work or at home, in this way you

Excel at one, and do well at the other one

You pursue your passion and also have fun

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So you should strive for work-life harmony

Not simply work-life balance, you see…

There are issues in your life that make you feel

Vulnerable- but your vulnerability you must never reveal..

When others see your weak or vulnerable side

You give them an opportunity to exploit it further, therefore you must hide

Any facet of you that could be construed as a weakness-

An embarrassing secret, a handicap, or an illness

You get respect when you appear strong

You put up a brave front when things are going wrong

You don’t want to let anyone chip away

At your formidable exterior, stoic you want to stay..

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This is the dictum I had imbibed

The stronger one appeared, the more one would thrive

But the older I grow, the more I comprehend

That everyone is vulnerable to some extent

When you share with others your vulnerability

A powerful first step towards healing it can be

You may bond over shared areas of vulnerability

Or be met with extraordinary empathy..

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None of us here is invincible, we know

So why bother – let our vulnerabilities show..

Some days I feel like I am floundering helplessly

Like a fish that has been taken out of the sea

Through life’s turbulent motions, I cannot seem to find

A firm footing for my discombobulated mind

I struggle and writhe until I realize

The futility of my enterprise-

Then I sit back and let life take its course

I resign myself to a more powerful force

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Then there are days when I seem to rise and shine

My confidence is high, everything falls in line

For me to cruise smoothly through the day

I encounter no roadblocks along the way

I am grateful for days that proceed such

There is nothing else that I need much…

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There are days of victory and days of defeat-

Days where I feel like I have two left feet

In the grand scheme of things, the two

Are almost equally spread out too

I celebrate the wins, (hopefully) learn from bad days

And try to feel productive both ways!

You should strive to be the best version of yourself, you are told

But how do you envision that version, how do you let it unfold

You can only be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday

But what would the best version of you look like, how do you say?

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How can you define the version of yourself that is best

If you are on a never-ending quest

To improve- each version of you is better than before

If you achieved your best version, you would not improve anymore..

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Wherever you start from, just try to ensure

You are moving forward from where you were before

The best possible version of you would be

The one that is honest and full of authenticity

I read stories of different kinds

One interesting theme that comes to my mind

Involves two protagonists living in eras different

Usually one living in a past century and one in the present

Similar in gender, age and their struggles as well

Both with similar yet different stories to tell..

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Two parallel stories, shifting from one to the next

Keeping the reader engaged by varying the context

It is a clever technique of writing, and I often find

With one of the two characters, my interest is more aligned

I love climaxes where the two stories intersect

And the past and the present are tied in a manner perfect..

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Giving free rein to my imagination, perhaps I could

Conjure up my alter ego who would

Hypothetically live in a bygone century

But in temperament and spirit would be similar to me

I could try to imagine her struggles parallel to mine

But obviously different, set in a different time…

I think it would be an intriguing exercise

During the process, I would prepare myself to be surprised..

This poem is inspired by a poll of “things the pandemic ruined”..

When you think about it, it is a shame

Post-pandemic, things are just not the same..

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Supply-demand mismatch, shortages rampant

Prices soaring to a stratospheric extent

Irrevocable differences among family and friends

Over vaccines and masking, arguments that never end..

Burnt-out health care workers, whose exit from the workforce

Has left a large void, difficult to fill, of course

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All of us seem to have taken a blow

To our mental health, the strain does show

We are more anxious and irritable now

Than we were in the pre-pandemic era somehow

The initial days of isolation and quarantine

Are over, but some strange times we have seen

Having gone through periods of fear and uncertainty

We now have a heightened sense of anxiety

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COVID remains a poignant reminder in my mind

Of the worst times that we have now left behind

If you place me in a room with even a single book in sight

I know curiosity I would be unable to fight

I would open the book and try to read

If I can, if it is in a recognizable script indeed

Otherwise I would marvel at the print and illustrations

You see, I have a compulsive inclination

Towards books of all genres, preferably in a language I know

But even if I do not understand the language I cannot let go

Of a book before me without examining it in some detail

In piquing my interest, books never seem to fail..

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The printed word holds an unparalleled charm for me

I am thankful that books are available readily

I understand it is a privilege to have countless books to read

There are children across the world, deprived of books they need…

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If I could teach impressionable minds

To discover companionship in books, I would find

A purpose in life that is closely aligned

With my identity that as a reader I’ve designed