We Goans are associated with the word ‘susegad’, a term derived from the Portuguese word ‘sossegado’ meaning calm and quiet, but often used in Goa to describe the relaxed Goan approach towards life. In this challenging world when most people deal with personal, professional, financial, social stresses and burdened to get their time allocation right, being relaxed might not be such a bad thing after all. It means one is in control of oneself, provided every Goan has done a proper and realistic goal setting and is constantly working towards meeting them in a cool and calm manner. That said; being in a perpetual relaxed state of mind, without any ambitious goals, might not be an ideal condition because it defeats the very purpose of being relaxed.
With Goans getting busier by the day, the present generation is on the verge of losing the ‘susegad’ tag rapidly. The word is now more apt to describe the generation past, as they were more calm and in control of their time and priorities in meeting their goals. If the present generation is busier, than naturally one should expect higher productivity resulting in increased prosperity, but that does not seem to be the case also. Difficult to put a number on the productivity levels between generations, but looking at the lifestyle of the past generation, it seems they enjoyed more public and private resources. Maybe by keeping things simple and focused, they managed time judiciously, prospered, and created wealth, resulting in a superior quality of life and even manage to pass-on their wealth to their Generation Next.
Of course, the present generation is under pressure to possess the never ending gadgetry that hits the market, which did not exist earlier and that puts some constraint on their net-worth, however, the larger problem is when Goans sincerely put in the effort, but it does not translate into positive results. In that case, it might be worthwhile reviewing our efforts to find out if we are directing our energies thoughtfully. A pointer could be our inability to manage our time. Logically a generation that is busier should have a better quality of life and that too with the added advantage of new technologies at our disposal, which by the way are designed to make life simpler. But technology can only help when humans agree to do away convoluted procedures.
Have we made our systems so complex that even the educated seem to go around in circles? Have we become slaves of systems designed to misuse our time into unproductive activities? Take for example our last Chief Minister and now Defense Minister of India. Despite his highly advertised long working hours, he could not resolve so many urgent issues of Goa before leaving. Corruption by the previous government for one, was the main reason he was handed over the job. A learned man is unable to complete a job given to him even after spending so much of his personal time in office, and that too with so many resources at his disposal. This goes to show that we have designed systems that have become complex and can easily put even the clever at their wits end, unable to produce results within a specific timeframe. Or is it something to do with the direction?
A Buddhist quote says something like this “If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.” Although direction is the primary focus of this quote, it also means once you get your direction right, there is no need to run towards your goal, walking should be good enough. Many Goans are running alright, but maybe positioned in the wrong direction, sometimes with their own free will, but many a times misdirected by politicians, leaders or people in positions of influence.
Swaach Bharat for example is a wonderful campaign by the Prime Minister. But how much time should an individual devote to cleaning the street or the city, thereby get exhausted and leave no energy to clean his own home? For instance is it right to coax people of Colva to spend few hours cleaning the beach sand that comes on the road, failing which, we blame them for not taking care of their village? The government is selected precisely to take care of issues like these, instead of passing the buck to the citizens. Creating citizen awareness to prevent litter should be the focus, and not to clean garbage with absolutely no action on the perpetrator.
Converting Christmas day into Good Governance Day is another example of government interference on its citizen’s free time and a question mark on the direction even if it was just writing essays. Although Christmas is celebrated by Christians, many non-Christians plan their time to either relax, switch off, or take a family outing, which by the way is also important to recharge their batteries and have a sane social life. By doing so, most employees start the New Year fully refreshed, ready to take on new challenges.
If there was a device that could measure the amount of time spent by Goans during their lifetime that actually turned out to be unproductive, top of the list would be, in the name of meetings go and listen political speeches where politicians look more like they are applying for a job at comedy circus, form long queues outside government offices to submit mundane forms that are designed mostly to keep bloated government officials occupied, visit public sector banks for tasks that are easily handled by online banking, pay utility bills at inconvenient locations within a narrow timeframe. How do we then expect Goans to relax, create and pursue their talent, when their mental space is high-jacked by unproductive events?
In an era of Goa’s herd mentality, people in authority should be careful before asking for commitment on people’s time. From the masses point of view, time allocation towards each goal is crucial, once set, they should not encroach on each other. It’s a dynamic process and needs fine tuning whenever goals are met and new ones are set, but most importantly it will help you weed out unproductive actions and lead a ‘susegad’ yet productive life.
(Plastino D’Costa is a business consultant)
