Work From home! is It?

By: Chandra Goswami

Given a choice, I would have never worked… I mean who wants to?

I work to sustain my Shopaholic obsessions.

Had my dad read this article, he would have surely thrown me out of the house since he already thinks I am misusing the era of ‘Bape’r Rajottoh’, that is ‘the reign of my father’. Had the reign been in the hand of my brother, well, I would have been long out of this sturdy, comfy palace of mine. Let’s put it like this, I have no responsibility, I don’t run this family, and I don’t need to spend money to sustain the hungry tribe. As such, my father worries that I have not grown into a responsible being; I am more like a pet they have adopted with the goal ‘All play no work’.

This is the cake of my story… wait, there’s icing too… I work from home.

Yeah, now you can curse me!

Source: Internet

My parents feel that I stay back home and magically money gets transferred to my account, for staring long at the computer every day. They have been pushing me to get a real job. Like the one where I go out of the house and return only after 8 hours. My mom has a different story. One day she complained that I am breaking the bed by sitting on it hours after hours, pushing every key on the keyboard. Sometimes, she worries that I have turned into a psychopath, browsing Al Qaeda’s videos throughout the day.  The other day she came running to hear the Skype conversation between me and my colleague just to be sure that we were not plotting to blow up the whole city.

Only sometimes, when I am deeply engulfed in my work, screaming my throat out in a Skype conference and projecting plans after plans that my father thinks that my company does exist and I am not working for RAW, ISI, MIB or aliens.

Anyway, if you thought my parents are the only people who think that I earn money doing nothing, then you are wrong. My neighbours think that I am a housewife.

Yes, you heard me right.

A few days back, one of the neighbouring aunties came up to us (she had shifted recently to our building). I was entering the premises along with my mom after a walk, when the aunty bubbling with enthusiasm asked, “Bhabi bazar se aa rahi hain? Aapki bahu toh ghar se nikalti hi nahi?” (Mam, you are coming from the market? How come your daughter-in-law never leaves the house?). I looked sideways to find my sister-in-law, who was probably a ghost because we didn't know she even existed.

Soon we realized that the lady was referring to me. My mother promptly corrected her saying that I was the daughter. The aunty, unshaken, replied back, “firbhi ghar pe hi rehti hain housewife ke tarha” (Still she sits back home like a housewife).

For the first time, I realized that my reasoning was too short to enlighten this wise woman. I gave up! So now to pacify the aunty, I go out frequently in the morning. I loiter around the market, buy some vegetables, and take a walk back home. She smiles at me demurely. Maybe, now she thinks that I was better a housewife than a certified vagabond.  

Source: Internet

Yet again, once when I helped one of my dad’s friends with some of his documentation work, he offered me a job in his relative’s office. When I told him that I already have a job, he smirked, and with an air of importance, he blurted, “I am not giving you freelance or part time job. I am giving you a real work”. I really wanted to know how he differentiated the real work from the artificial work! Was I joining any political organization for the task of ‘Nation Building’, since this is considered a very real work these days!

I had an intense desire to educate him and tell him that I work as a Project Manager in a reputed company which pays me a good salary along with medical allowance, TA, DA and all other allowances that a company should pay. I am engaged in a regular job with a prospect of growth. But, again for Indian adults (I still consider myself a toddler), a job is a job when you carry a tiffin box to your office. So, I remained quiet, briskly smiled, and politely declined his offer.

The greatest irony of my age is that many of my friends also believe that I earn money sleeping through my work hours or browsing the net. But here’s the reality. I know I get the luxury to stay back home, but my work usually does not end after 8 or 10 hours. I work until the deadline is met. Since I work from home, I cannot make excuses like chakka bandh (motor vehicle strike), Assam bandh, India bandh and the mightiest of all… artificial flood and water logging to skip a day at work.  Furthermore, the work from home also needs discipline, and at times, since I have the luxury of staying back home, my office gets the luxury to see me at work till 11 at night.

By now I hope I have convinced you all that I actually do some serious work throughout the week like others. But I must add that the perks of my job are the cherry on the cake. First, I usually don’t miss a good movie when it’s playing on the TV. Second, I also get to cuddle up in my cozy blanket when it gets chilly, or rush to dance on the terrace when it starts raining. Yes, I guess the work from home has its own benefits and I am lucky to enjoy it all!