Striking a balance

When I heard Sujith, (say that he was willing to live for the river), I was reminded of what my friend Venu had told me over a drink one night, while we were volunteering at the Pain and Palliative Care Clinic.

"There are many people in this world, who want to do many things in life, but can't afford to do so, because they can't strike a balance between passion and pursuing a life to make a living. "

The two years I spent as a volunteer at the Pain and Palliative Clinic is still one of those phases in my life that I value a lot. That's where I realised that I could be useful to someone. Even though it was just about listening to people, or just jotting down the case histories of patients, it meant the world to many terminally ill patients, with head and neck malignancy or osteo-sarcoma or any other sorts of cancer.

I went to volunteer for two weeks at the clinic as suggested by my girlfriend who was a student at the medical college there. By the time I left that place to do my Masters, almost two years has passed and I hardly even noticed where the time disappeared.

Venu continued,…."Someone like you shouldn’t be just volunteering here, instead you should be the driving force to bring in funds to support initiatives like this."

Somehow, the whole thing resonated in my mind that night. Maybe people like Sujith or Anwar or many others I met that night, may not be able to pursue their passion, for the simple reason that it was not financially viable to do so! They had their families to support, they had their school bills to be paid, and they had various commitments.

On the other hand, perhaps they would continue to work for the river or continue pursuing their passion if they had a regular source of income that was closely related to their passion (river). I was dreaming about such a scenario, about being able to be passionate and not really worrying about the payments to be made in the nearby grocery store or the monthly amount that their parents would have appreciated receiving.

Or even to think about buying something small as a gift for their nearest and dearest. ....

© GP 2006