| Volunteering... |
[May. 7th, 2008|07:23 pm] |
I have always done some form or the other of voluntary work, but have been careful to let it occupy only my "spare" time and not let it encroach upon time that is devoted to the spouse and the household. But that is changing now....
For the past few years, I have been shaken out of my comfortable existence to not just do voluntary work, but take up the cause of a city that is rapidly degrading. I realize that I have the time and the energy to devote to this challenging and often frustrating task.
I have always written about things, and it came as a pleasant surprise to me that many people were interested in what *I* found interesting, and wrote about. So my writing on my own blog started, and satisfied me much more than writing articles for the newspaper, which never brought the kind of feedback and interaction that my blog does. Then I started writing the Bangalore-specific stuff for Metblogs, too, and that was nice. Then Citizen Matters happened, and the writing became a little bit more serious.
I concentrate on things that are of interest to the causes dear to my heart. trying to save the trees, improve the roads, introduce more cycling, and preserve the lakes...and reporting about all of it...it's beginning to take HUGE chunks out of my time, and not just my free time, which is what I wanted to do as a voluntary worker...
It has not helped that KM's off day has been ...er..involuntarily (!) changed to Thursdays, because of the power staggering at the industrial complex where his unit is. Very often I find that thanks to meetings being scheduled at odd times, or watching plays, I am sitting and writing articles and reviews at times when I was never at the computer earlier.
I am NOT interested in writing/reporting as a career, but at the same time, do enjoy writing, and really like the experience of gathering information and views and writing about it all. This, alas, does not happen to be a 9 to 5 kind of activity...
At what point should I draw the line and say, no more? I find that when I am committed to write something, I do have a compulsion to finish it within the deadline. If there is no power through the day (as happened today) I have to sit and write in the evenings. The words "have to" have appeared here...and those are not words that I want.
When "want to" starts turning into "have to", I have to pause and reflect...but I do enjoy looking around and photographing things and writing about them, and the fit is so good...
Can you hear that honking noise? That comes from the horns...of my dilemma. (And that does not Emma's Hindi heart, either.)
And meanwhile..here's an absolutely delightful scene that I caught...
This was on my way home from the eternal war against the way things are done here (the alleged Uninterrupted Power Supply, the lack of power the whole day at home, the bank, the BSNL internet connection...) I remember a tagline from some insurance ad that said, "Daddy to dolly, everyone jolly". Here, it's Mom, the daughters (twins? I couldn't catch up with them to find out) and their dollies....it lifted my heart after a long and frustrating day. |
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| Comments: |
That photo is delightful.
I'm glad Bangalore has you--I think what you write must encourage and energize people to make a positive change. As for drawing the line at how much time you will commit... it's hard; I think it constantly has to be renegotiated.
Just found this post as I sit in my Bangkok hotel room. You KNOW I understand how much time and energy volunteering can take from the rest of your life. When the power goes out, though, one is forced to rearrange when things will be done. It's more of a time SHIFT, though, isn't it? Still, I think you are experiencing what I've been going through, this urge to turn toward the world at this age of our lives. Post-menopausal zest, I call it.
No Trish, (and I hope you will be in India when you read this....welcome BACK!) it's not just a time shift. It's time that I would spend with KM otherwise, and though he doesn't SAY anything, he is used to a life where he takes priority...and it causes friction....
I'm still in Bangkok for the moment. Then we're heading to Nepal first for three weeks. I do understand the tension, though. I have a husband who is used to my having other priorities than him, but still, when he feels I'm spending too much time on my work and not enough on him, it gets communicated. Oh yes.
I cannot relate to your dilemma. However, I have 2 thoughts:
1) Most people of the world fill their lives with "have to"'s. Many of those who don't have an ambitious drive such that their "want to"'s become "have to"'s. I can't help feeling a little bit of envy at your ability to lack too many "have to"'s. It seems against the natural order of the world in some way. And because it does, it seems to me that it may behoove someone in your position to push a little for the benefit of those other than yourself.
2) Pushing oneself beyond one's natural will can achieve greater results than otherwise. | |
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