Presence Vs Productivity

‘Because it’s more important to love the players of the game and not the game itself’

The sheer banality of going through our daily routines, completing tasks assigned to us by others has been ingrained into each one of us. We have been programmed to delete the blank spaces from our lives and replace them with constructive wisdom, as if a moment left blank in a person’s life dictates his life’s worthiness!

I have been brought up in a family of sheer workaholics. Both my parents lead very disciplined lives, waking up early every morning and making sure they tick each of the tasks off their list for the day before turning the lights out. I have tried my best to emulate them and in the last seven-eight years, I have gone out of my way to make sure that my plate is always full. I have tried to affront life head-on trying to soak in everything it has to offer, new places to visit, languages to learn, books to read, delicacies I had never heard of. For me, this was my take of being the best version of being productive.

However, along the way I have realized the hard choices I made in a matter of seconds just to gallop along this journey. All those times when I did not return the call from my grandparents just because I was on my way to a new hill station, when I did not revert to the distress calls from my best friend because I thought talking about her hundredth break up would be a sheer waste of time.

My mother always made sure that no matter how busy her day was, we always would have our meals together without the TV blaring in the background. She taught me how the little things matter more in life. I have let this slip away in this cacophony of life. Trying too hard on being “productive”, I have let the “presence” while away.