As you step into the complex, you see the sparkling clean glass buiildings glowing in the morning sun. You are asked to stick to the pedestrian path along a perfectly manicured, green garden decorated with an assortment of pebbles and a large immaculately maintained fountain. Cars move in proper lanes slowly arranging themselves into geometrically perfect arrangement in a parking lot. Not one car lying orphaned on the road. You step into the foyer and walk towards the elevators. Some elevators take you only to the odd floors, others take you to the even floors. You take an elevator and step into the machine. Grab your seat and switch on the machine. You can do only certain things in the office and in your computer. Keep your nose in your business and keep your life simple. Your work is cut out for you. Do what is asked and leave the rest to the others. You get up and go to the restroom and see a bunch of charts hanged to the wall. How to wash your hands! How to dry your hands. Instructions to do all these. Loads of instructions elsewhere too.
You look at all this and ask yourself - why all this discipline? Why so many howtos. Why this desperate need to break down everything into a bunch of instructions? Why make everything so rigorous and structure it around half a dozen rules. Don't go there. Don't do this. Don't walk there, ada ada ada... Where has all the chaos gone?
What has happened to all those small uncertainities in life and where the hell are all those people who thrived on uncertainities? You know there are people who like to live on the edge and believe in taking risks. Where are all those people? Where are those people who want to try something new and experience life.
Everything about office life is so predictable. You know it is boring but you still find people tagging along. Why? They look forward to weekends to do something new. How can they do that? How can they shut off their creative and racy urges during weekdays and unleash it on weekends? Have they reached that next level of monotonicity and disciplined their chaotic mind?
Well 2nd law of thermodynamics is at work and you know that no matter what people do to cap chaos, it will emerge in unknown ways and there will be a bunch of people looking at these unknown variables. Keeping life simple is a thing of past. Right now you are clueless and have no idea of where you are and what you can do. You are only afraid that before you unravel this puzzle, you'll be one of them...
You look at all this and ask yourself - why all this discipline? Why so many howtos. Why this desperate need to break down everything into a bunch of instructions? Why make everything so rigorous and structure it around half a dozen rules. Don't go there. Don't do this. Don't walk there, ada ada ada... Where has all the chaos gone?
What has happened to all those small uncertainities in life and where the hell are all those people who thrived on uncertainities? You know there are people who like to live on the edge and believe in taking risks. Where are all those people? Where are those people who want to try something new and experience life.
Everything about office life is so predictable. You know it is boring but you still find people tagging along. Why? They look forward to weekends to do something new. How can they do that? How can they shut off their creative and racy urges during weekdays and unleash it on weekends? Have they reached that next level of monotonicity and disciplined their chaotic mind?
Well 2nd law of thermodynamics is at work and you know that no matter what people do to cap chaos, it will emerge in unknown ways and there will be a bunch of people looking at these unknown variables. Keeping life simple is a thing of past. Right now you are clueless and have no idea of where you are and what you can do. You are only afraid that before you unravel this puzzle, you'll be one of them...
Q. How can they shut off their creative and racy urges during weekdays and unleash it on weekends?
ReplyDeleteA. That never happens. They often get drunk on Saturdays and are in the hang over on Sundays. No time for creativity.
Q. Have they reached that next level of monotonicity and disciplined their chaotic mind?
A. Yes.
" You are only afraid that before you unravel this puzzle, you'll be one of them " Can't agree less!
God Bless them, and God Bless me who'll become one of them pretty soon !! :( :D
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding like an apologist for the company and being labeled 'uncool', I would like to point out that organizations work for a specific purpose, large number of people from disparate backgrounds converge together to achieve that purpose and thus, you would agree that some form and degree of discipline is essential.
ReplyDeleteFrom what Sunanda has told me about your company, it looks like for a corporate organization, you guys are a bit on the liberal side.
The way you have described it is how most of the world operates for people like us, and this feeling of 'being lost, with no idea where we're going' is something that most people I know have gone through in the initial phases of their corporate career.
You might want to give up on it and chart your own path, but I'd suggest that you give this kind of life also a chance!
But what about the locus of cars/bikes before settling into a parking lane? Chaos, isnt it?
ReplyDeleteI would say captain that its because of the bipartite perception we have. The world is still the same! beautiful, ugly, the way you see it.
"Keeping life simple is a thing of past." ?? I would call it rude.
Anyhoo Peace!