All work, all play
We are born, we are tended to by our parents, spend years at school and college without having the faintest idea of what education means. That’s because our parents place an emphasis on securing good marks at the examinations. Period.
To secure marks we learn by heart, copy, or study specifically those answers which we think we are likely to be asked. We want to pass exams with distinction but do not know how and if we will be able to apply our education towards a practical end. Amazingly, neither my parents nor my teachers ever told me that the purpose of education is to gain knowledge and marks are mere proof to the world that you do have attained that knowledge.
Parents see education as a means to acquire a job. And when we get one, the thrust is to work hard. My grandfather, a civil engineer, would keep saying I must study hard and then work hard during the construction of the Krishna Oberoi Hotel in Hyderabad. He told me that he would wake up at 4 am every day of his life.
When I asked him how come so many people who wake up at 10 am are more successful than him, he would throw a fit. I wanted to tell him that it’s not about 4 am or 10 am, or about the number of hours we put into work. It’s about how you feel about your work and carrying it out successfully which counts. Since my grandfather was an aggressive man and would have slapped me, I couldn’t tell him this.
Life is but a cycle. We are born, grow up, get married, have children, we make them grow up, make them get married, we get old and then we die. God or nature has given us life only to take it away. So why not make the best of it? I’m told I work too hard. The fact is, I have never worked in my life. Work is something you have to do. But if you want to do it willingly, it is sheer pleasure. Once, I would enjoy the process of raising `40 for a meal. Today, I enjoy the process of raising `4 crore for a film. There is no difference.
With the first `2 lakhs I earned, my grandfather was after me to buy a piece of land in Jubilee Hills to secure my future. But I spent it on the interior decoration of a rented office which I was supposed to vacate in a few months. My grandfather would predict to everyone that I would be a massive failure because of my irrational attitude. Throughout his life, he had worked very hard but without once thinking what exactly he was working towards.
Today, I wish I could tell him, “If all your work is geared towards securing yourself against failure and death, why live at all?”
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