Doing Nothing Rocks!


Most people who go to work curse and crib about their jobs. But a strange transformation seems to happen when some of those same folks retire. Several of them go back to work!

It’s not like they start doing the sort of things they wanted to but couldn’t. They go back to the same profession! Sure, in some cases, it may have to do with money problems. A few of my dad’s office colleagues have even gone abroad for engineering jobs post-retirement. I’ve always wondered what possessed them to do that at their age. After all, there are very few things you don’t get in India today. What could possibly be so appealing about going to another country and adapting to their culture and their systems? And, oh yeah, working again?

Another set gets back to the workplace because they are bored. Again, something I don’t understand. C’mon, guys, there are a zillion options today. Watch TV. Surf the Net. Read a book. Blog about something. Paint. Do day-trading. Watch that game. Or see those saas-bahu serials.

Or maybe there’s a set of people who really are married to their work. More accurately, their sense of self-worth is tied to their job. To the praise they get for a job well done. For the respect their authority and, in some cases, their knowledge gets them at the workplace.

Me, I am in the Calvin camp and enjoy doing nothing. But then again, maybe I’ll understand what those retired folks undergo only when I retire. Hmmm, now how do I get enough money to retire quickly? Short of earning it, of course…

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