A Lost Family And The Professional World

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With a lot of youngsters finding office life very charming due to its friendly culture or getting lost in the professional world, the inability to be present at family's pleasure is simply causing a lot of heartburn to many people. And, perhaps for others, it's just simply offering a 'valid' reason to escape the cumbersome family life!

Be it the obvious reasons for not being able to leave office on time on any special occasion or the intentional 'excuses' to stay back for late hours, it is today's professionals' attitude towards the family life that has been severely affected.

The fickleness to give more importance to one's professional or personal life often leads to a lot of headache and the result is either another cigarette or a cane of beer to cool down!

And, one of the most sufferers are the people working outstations or coming from places where utmost significance is given to one's time spent with family and relatives. Many of them find it hard to digest listening words like : "I hate family, I can't digest the concept of marriage or loyalty or spending one's prime of life just to raise kids".

Talking to just anyone working in metropolitan cities about family, especially around holidays, is like having touched a string which the other person least expect someone to strum when they are full of nostalgia.

Recently, I came across two of my colleagues at the office who were working in Delhi, perhaps, to take an edge over the peer group back at their hometowns. One of them hailed from Shimla, the city best loved by honeymooners. And, the other one belonged to Jaipur, the pink city known for its traditional way of life and Rajasthani culture.

During my separate conversations with both of these girls, I learnt how much the concept of "family" still looked meaningful for at least some of the GenNext youngsters. They termed spending maximum time with one's family as the true celebration of life.

The Jaipur girl said no matter how much exciting is the here chosen field, she still longed to spend a good time with her mother and younger sister, especially on festivals. She said it felt agonisingly frustrating not to find family members when one returns home, thinking it's Holi or Diwali.

Whereas the Shimla girl stumped me for good by saying it was the MOTHERHOOD that fascinated her the most. Despite her young age she looked so well-prepared to raise her kids and offer them the true warmth of a mother that a child badly misses when he/she is sent to boarding schools.

It made her nostalgic telling me how she missed her mother's affection and father's care and friendship when others at the office suddenly started. She said she valued traditions, culture and its thorough celebrating as something really fantastic to enjoy. Her touching but unexpected revelations left me flabbergasted!

But despite their young age, both these girls showed me how miscalculated had I been all these years fearing youngsters in cities had lost all charm for a family life. It made me happy to learn at least there were some Angrezi speaking individuals who took pride in growing up as a family person.

Since stepping into journalism seven years back, I miserably failed to come across individuals who would keep the joy of spending time with family at such a high esteem. I was thrilled to learn despite being from a world of highly ambitious people, there was someone who could think of spending maximum time raising her kids.

For, it is nothing abnormal these days to come across overtly ambitious office colleagues who would laugh at the idea of marriage, kids or leading a life in a joint family system.

But be it Ms. Jaipur or Ms. Shimla, their innermost thoughts once again strengthened my personal belief that no matter how 'advance' GenX tends to appear, the traditional way of leading a life will always be fascinating for its gratification.