Confessions of a Lazy Weekend
Today is one of those lazy days, not just because I am feeling it, but because the environment is exactly like that. The monsoon is running, but no rain is coming. Every day, clouds come to the sky but go away with a smile. Even today, a few drops of rain poured on the earth, but then it stopped. It felt like somebody by mistake opened the shower in their bathroom, and when the water fell over them, they closed it ASAP. The same happened with us.
The good thing is the environment is pleasant and not extreme. But there is some humidity in the air which is making me lazy. This laziness is not only due to the environment but also because I have stopped using Instagram. We have stopped watching TV, at least in the way we used to. The consumption of content on the internet has reduced, which I think is making me lazy—or rather, allowing me to feel lazy. There is nothing to do, watch, or read at this time.
The Nostalgia of Simple Days
Now, my mind is wandering everywhere. Thoughts are coming that childhood was good. During our school days, weekends were long awaited just to play the whole day. Studies were not the priority, but the Sunday match with other teams was always set. The whole day was spent in a cricket match. The match was set with a simple bet: whoever wins takes the ball of the other team. The T-20 matches practically started in our school days, way before the format was used in the IPL.
But then the mind says college days were way cooler than childhood days. We went to college, and the weekends became the time to attend extra classes. Classes for the career, because we knew that the degree we were getting wasn’t going to land us a job.
Life started showing its reality from college time. For a middle-class person, if you don’t crack a government job or the IITs, there is nothing much left to do. Simply because you don’t have the connections and the money at the same time. Therefore, the only way that remains is to do one or two certificate courses so that your chances of getting a job (any job) increase.
What amuses me is that every student, teacher, and parent knows that graduation has very little value in present times. People without degrees have become PMs, CMs, and top content creators. They are earning way more than IAS officers and IITians, yet the middle class still wants their children to graduate.
The answer to this is simple: we all want to avoid uncertainty. Putting a student in college feels safe, compared to investing the same money in learning a specific skill and letting them do their own work in that field.
In our time, it was a blessing that parents were not that well-read, so the pressure on us to study wasn’t that high. All parents wanted was for us to get good marks and secure a job as soon as possible. If you got a government job, it was like moksha for the parents.
This is desired even by those parents who are already in government jobs and know that nothing is good in it except the security and some power (which gives them a way to make some money in not-so-right ways). Graduation is no longer the parameter that a person is well-educated or knowledgeable, as it is not enough to get a job. But it still gives a false sense of pride: “I am a graduate, or a post-graduate.”
Modern Escapes and “Masterstrokes”
Now, my thoughts return to the present, where weekends are not that exciting anymore. Weekend trips have also become mundane. The whole of Delhi, NCR, Haryana, and UP comes to Uttarakhand (UK) for weekend trips. The crowd UK is facing, especially within a 250km radius from the Delhi border towards the north, is “commendable.”
Standing in traffic in the mountains hits differently for many people. What I like the most is that many people come to the mountains for recreational activities, but they just need loud music along with booze. All the things they usually do in the room of their own house, they are now doing in a resort cabin by paying 5x more money than usual.
Many companies these days take their employees to some resort on weekends and pay for their party and limited drinks.
Alcohol is a very mysterious beverage. Earlier, it only used to damage human livers, and now it has started ruining car engines. The way our government is putting E20 petrol in E10 engines is again a masterstroke. We know that alcohol in a limit is like a medicine, and an excess of it can be harmful. The same goes for car engines, but our beloved government is in denial. I always praise Nitin Gadkari Sir; the way he is working for his children, all children deserve a father like him.
Children are on the roads today, thanks to our education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He is like the Ace minister of the present government. The older generation for the past few years has been condemning Gen Z, saying they are good for nothing and should be more serious about life and their studies.
But when they finally got serious about studying, a paper leak happened. Now, these Gen Z kids are on the roads to demand his resignation. I don’t know why people are not able to see the good in it. Dharmendra ji just made entrances easy. Instead of studying for the whole year, you can just get the question paper beforehand. The price is also lesser than the money students spend on coaching and all.
The Philosophy of Laziness
What to do? My mind is going round and round with different thoughts, and my body is saying, “Let’s just sleep, today is the weekend.” Weekends are no longer seen as a time to go out of the city and do the same stupidity in the mountains that we do in the cities. Let’s just stay at home, order some food, and relax. I find no point in doing something that doesn’t need to be done—like unnecessary traveling and shopping.
Except for the army, nobody is doing much work in this country anyway. Many things are just on automatic mode. People are stressing over mundane issues. If I compare the hardships we face today with my parents’ time, I feel our hardships shouldn’t even be called “hard.” Some issues today just go over my head. People start taking therapy for trivial matters these days. Even a therapist goes for therapy!
But then, I feel for them. Because of the absence of actual survival hardships, we think too much. And when we think, we think in extremes—like I am doing right now. The purpose of life is unknown to me; I think I am just passing the time and doing my duties and karma, according to the present situation.
Sometimes the most productive thing a person can do is absolutely nothing. Laziness is a beautiful habit. In fact, I believe that the world is saved by lazy people only. If everybody decides to “stay hungry and stay foolish” and starts competing with others in their own field, life will become much more stressful. In the end, why compete? Why be extremely successful? What will happen even if we become filthy rich?
Ultimately, we eat as per our capacity, we wear clothes made of the same few meters of fabric, and we take up the same amount of space to sleep—90% of our daily activities will remain the same. I am not saying that you shouldn’t earn money. Money is very important and essential. What I am saying is that a good life can be lived with a decent amount of money.
Then why compete unnecessarily? When will we stop and say, “Let’s just enjoy life”? Let’s take a pause, stay in bed, write anything, read anything, and speak anything. Why not make new friends again just to play for enjoyment and have random talks?
Earlier, there was no social media, so we had friends to talk about anything and go anywhere with. That was the best recreational activity; that was our therapy. Today, every generation has zero interaction with people. This expressionless communication has blurred the usage of appropriate words in society and made the usage of abusive words “cool.” On this note, I want to end this article from where we started, the famous quote of the greatest leader of the world:
