In Search of the Perfect Lifestyle

We are probably moving. It is a big change for me. Where and when I can't say yet! But I do know why and here it is ( this entry inspired by the New York Times Article titled, The Five-Bedroom, Six-Figure Rootless Life.)

Double Incomes. Weekdays start at 6:00 a.m. with the high pitched sound of the doorbell. Its the maid and lucky are those days when she turns up. Packing lunch, a visit to the gym, a cup of tea, a shower followed by breakfast and scurrying off to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus. Then a busy day packed with meetings and tons of work. Good workdays end at 6:00 p.m. When the going is bad, it can stretch upto 9:00 p.m. Back home cook dinner, watch tv, have dinner and sleep. And it is the end of another day! Weekends mean paying biils, visiting family, trips to the site where your house is being built or if you already own a house, then furnishing it, doing umpteen household chores and yet another thing - socializing with people. Sometime even going on a weekend trip becomes an action item.

That is a typical lifestyle of a good percentage of working metropolitan couples in India. Now though this does sound like a busy life, I think still this percentage of couples are better off as there is one less thing to do - no kids which means no dropping to / picking from school, can eat out when needed and don't have to sit through their homework or attend parent teacher meeting. You save a few hours!

Ok now why are we moving?
Continue Reading....

I can't find an intelligent answer..so let me just say that the other job offers more opportunities, more pay package and more flexibility for the future. Now what does all this translate to ? You might say good career, good future but at the end of the day all that one looks for is a good life. If you are 30 and you made $50 million by selling a startup, wouldn't you like to sit at home and enjoy what you have always wanted to? You might still opt to work but then you work because it is your passion you don't work for a living!

I didn't intend to get philosophical. The only that bothers me is that there is no end to this rat race. As the article said, IT has made Bangalore a homogeneous economy. The wish list is almost the same - a 3 bed room apartment, a car and a good income. I find most of us running behind that something and when you have that something, you are not contented either. When you don't have a car, you want one.
When you have one, your neighbour's long car always seems better than your own. You have an apartment and now you want a villa. Your kid goes to B class school, and you want to put him in some A class one. Your neighbour goes on a vacation to Europe and you too want to plan one to South East Asia. Comparisons, comparisons and more comparisons..there is no end to it and there is no such thing as a perfect lifestyle. You have it all and yet you want more! This is the mantra of today.......

Some excerpts from the article ...

Isolated, segmented and stratified, these families are cut off from the single, the gay and the gray and, except for those tending them, anyone from lower classes.
Unlike their upper-middle-class kindred - the executives, doctors and lawyers who settle down in one place - relos forgo the old community props of their class: pedigree and family ties
"What is the American dream?" said Karen Handel, chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission in Alpharetta. "It's to have a house of your own, the biggest house you can afford, on the biggest lot you can afford, with a great school for your kids, a nice park to spend Saturday afternoon with your kids in, and deep in amenities that get into the trade-offs with traffic."

What does this change have in store for us? I guess all that the article listed ..
1. Exploring a Change ..(after having lived in Bangalore for 5 years, the thought of going elsewhere is slightly intimidating but I'm told this new place is very nice.
It can't get worse is what I think --the traffic woes for sure)
2. Unexpected Challenges
3. Adjusting to Differences