I remember a lesson ‘Monday Morning’ in my schooldays that was an excerpt from the novel ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ of a famous British writer Mark Twain. Tom is a very naughty boy, who never likes Monday mornings. For Monday morning always makes him miserable as it reminds him of the whole week of suffering ahead and the pain of leaving behind the freedom of happily spent Sunday without going to school. On Sunday only, he is able to spend the whole day according to his own sweet will.
That particular Sunday he is assigned with the work of whitewashing the fence by his aunt as a punishment for steeling jam. He wants to go to enjoy his day. Being very naughty he hatches a plan and pretends that whitewashing is a sheer fun for him. His friends come to him one by one and find him enjoying that tedious work and request him to share the joy of painting. Tom gets them to do all the work for him and in return he takes from them some triflings like pebbles, a kite, conch shells, an apple and many more such things. Ultimately he makes his Sunday as enjoyable as ever at the expense of his silly friends.
Sunday is considered a non-working day in many countries of the world, and is a part of the weekend. There are historical records that say Constantine and Henry, the VI officially declared Sunday as a holiday. As the Christianity considers Sunday as their Sabbath day (seventh day Adventist) this day is being observed by them as weekly holiday. The Bible explains how the God created the whole world in six days and rested on the seventh i.e. on Sunday. The saintly people always suggest to follow the path of God and God himself rested on the seventh day, why not we? I suggest you to follow the right path shown by the God. Albert Schweitzer says, “Do not let Sunday be taken from you, if your soul has no Sunday it becomes an orphan.”
This is the day everyone wants to do whatever one likes to do. In this emaciated world of just 365 days a year, just 30-31 days in a month and merely 7 days in a week how would one accommodate one’s desire to do what one likes. After all we are social animals and need a day to socialize amongst our near and dear. The idea of writing about Sunday came to my mind when almost on eight consecutive Sundays I had been called for one or the other official assignments in the name of Sunday being a free day. And then I felt like wishing for Mondays or Wednesdays but not Sundays. This made me realize the importance of Sunday as fun-day. Now I am convinced that one needs a break and even a machine breaks down when made to work continuously. And we are not machines. Life is a gift of God and a gift should be by rule pleasurable. And Sunday has a major role to play in this pleasure. If somebody robs you from availing this pleasure, let a curse of Hell fall on him.
My special wrath is against those (bosses) who always seek sedative pleasure in calling and engaging people on Sundays and spoil the festive, free and relaxing mood of such days. I also strongly feel that one should work on all working days sincerely, seriously and untiringly. But the mood becomes different the moment the calendar announces it a Sunday. Children sprightly call it a Fun-day. And on fun-day one should have only fun and one can pursue one’s hobby and nothing else as it energizes and replenishes you with the new vigour of working for all the next six days uninterruptedly. I strongly believe in what the Irish novelist, Maria Edgeworth sings: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and all play and no work makes Jack a mere boy.” The “Sunday” computer virus, a member of the Jerusalem virus family discovered in 1989, contained a reference to the proverb and corrupted the files created on Sundays. So Sunday workaholics beware!!!
I have a special grudge against those quality maintaining machineries like ISO 2000, MCI, NAAC, AICTE etc who in the name of maintaining quality and encouraging work culture, expect you to work on Sundays. Why work on Sundays??? If that work can be finished comfortably on other working days, why unnecessarily should one work on Sundays? I blame it to the lack of planning or in new nomenclature ‘lack of event management.’ In corporate work culture, Sunday has a very significant role to play. It is a mark of smart work; it is a requirement of the demanding time; it is necessary to outdo and outsmart each other on the count of Sunday. I request all those who work on Sundays to ‘tarry’. Don’t run so fast. Stop or else God will stop you soon for ever. Loosing your peace of mind, loosing your appetite, loosing your basic instinct to rest for a while, if you achieve some machine like target, I would count you in machines rather than counting in humans.
No comments:
Post a Comment