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Multitasking is the scourge of our lives today as women, and it is expected that we do many things well and efficiently. Is this really what we want?
I had never heard of this terminology when I was a kid back in the 80’s and 90’s. I don’t know when and how this word has crept into our lives but everyone seems to have become a multitasker and a proud one at that.
Of course we had multitaskers before. Umm…our mothers. But they were never called that, they are just mothers, they are born to do all those thousand and one things at the same time and look serene and calm too. I am not talking about these true-blue multitasking angels….
What I am saying is in all this hurry to fit in so many things in a short span of time, are we really doing any justice to the task at hand. Do we even consciously spend any time doing one particular task to our fullest satisfaction, giving it our best shot? Why are we in such a hurry to do so many things trying to just tick it off our to-do list?
The present state is not enjoyed at all. Everything revolves around the future. What we are going to do tomorrow, a week after or a month later, is what sounds more important than what is current. (No wonder we have so many ADHD cases being reported now).The more number of things we can do in a short duration gives us the euphoria of accomplishment.
All this is probably just to fill the void we feel inside and to prove it to ourselves of our self- worth. Doing just a few things is just not good enough anymore.
Have you ever gotten up from your study to water the plants and then on your way saw the plates lying in the middle of the living room, so picked them up to drop them on the dining table, and then found the dining table to be a mess and stopped to clear it, and in the middle of clearing the mess found your pen you have been searching all along, and with that went back to your study wondering what you had come out for? At the end neither the plants get watered nor the dining table mess gets cleared….There are many such instances we could quote from our everyday lives.
What happened to the slow pace and unhurried ways of our earlier days? Summers spent day-dreaming, gardening, learning a new hobby not to perfect it but for the love of learning something new or seeing something grow. These things need not be scheduled or put under the itinerary heading ‘vacation time’; it should be part of our regular everyday scheme of things.
Somewhere down the line, I have come to despise this term multitasking, and see it as a threat to creativity and originality. This word is slowly wreaking havoc in many households. Women are the ones bearing the brunt of this so called menace. They are expected to be superwomen juggling work and family life with finesse. No one is able to even fathom the crushing load of work that has to be done to keep things running like clockwork. And God forbid if it shows, then you are just not efficient enough.
Who do you think is responsible for creating such high expectations out of us? Let’s prioritize and do what is most important to us and give it our best, not for any recognition, but for our satisfaction. Do less but efficiently. Live in the moment and cherish whatever that is that you are doing. Once you put your heart and soul to anything you do, the need to over-achieve will vanish and peace will set-in.
Published here earlier.
Image source: Flickr, for representational purposes only.
A mother of two amazing kids and a teacher by profession, I have varied interests. Apart from being an avid reader, I dabble in gardening. My love for painting, cooking, travelling and jotting down my read more...
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I huffed, puffed and panted up the hill, taking many rest breaks along the way. My calf muscles pained, my heart protested, and my breathing became heavy at one stage.
“Let’s turn back,” my husband remarked. We stood at the foot of Shravanbelagola – one of the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres. “We will not climb the hill,” he continued.
My husband and I were vacationing in Karnataka. It was the month of May, and even at the early hour of 8 am in the morning, the sun scorched our backs. After visiting Bangalore and Mysore, we had made a planned stop at this holy site in the Southern part of the state en route to Hosur. Even while planning our vacation, my husband was very excited at the prospect of visiting this place and the 18 m high statue of Lord Gometeshwara, considered one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues.
What we hadn’t bargained for was there would be 1001 granite steps that needed to be climbed to have a close-up view of this colossal magic three thousand feet above sea level on a hilltop. It would be an understatement to term it as an arduous climb.
Every daughter, no matter how old, yearns to come home to her parents' place - ‘Home’ to us is where we were brought up with great care till marriage served us an eviction notice.
Every year Dugga comes home with her children and stays with her parents for ten days. These ten days are filled with fun and festivity. On the tenth day, everyone gathers to feed her sweets and bids her a teary-eyed adieu. ‘Dugga’ is no one but our Goddess Durga whose annual trip to Earth is scheduled in Autumn. She might be a Goddess to all. But to us, she is the next-door girl who returns home to stay with her parents.
When I was a child, I would cry on the day of Dashami (immersion) and ask Ma, “Why can’t she come again?” My mother would always smile back.
I mouthed the same dialogue as a 23-year-old, who was home for Durga Puja. This time, my mother graced me with a reply. “Durga is fortunate to come home at least once. But many have never been home after marriage.”
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