TGM

After an extended Deepavali break, how do you feel ? Are you experiencing the typical MMB (Monday Morning Blues) or looking forward to TGM – Thank God it is Monday? (yeah, yeah I know the original is TGF – Thank God it is Friday😊)  

You may wonder why on earth did I coin TGM ? Who on earth says TGM ? Why am I talking positively about returning to work, which is diametrically opposite to my earlier piece titled “The Trapeze”, calling out the lack of work-life-balance ? Because it is true. For some of us work can be therapeutic, enjoyable, rewarding, welcoming, giving us the much-needed break from the weekend chaos.

Decades ago, when I was working with a corporate that saw me leave for work as early as 7am and return 12 hours later, with two small children to be tended to, I dreaded the so-called weekends that were supposed to provide respite from ‘work’. Of course, it was a 100% break from professional work on weekends, since fortunately, I could not carry my desktop back home (no laptops were provided back then!). However, despite a supportive care system that I had created, there was plenty to be accomplished on the domestic front, come Saturday and Sunday – sweeping, mopping, dusting, washing, cleaning toilets, worrying about children’s homeworks, tests, entertaining guests etc. Many a times, I would wait for a relaxed Monday morning when I could read my favourite newspaper, Eco Times and enjoy the FM Radio songs on the long commute to work, chatting up with colleagues. Ah, it was a such refreshing feeling getting back to work, sitting in my cabin !

Radhika was recently recognised as a ‘Star Perfomer’ in an organisation. Usually reticent about her feelings, she opened up to say “Ma’am, thank you so much for the award. It was a very emotional moment for me. Last few years of my life has been a roller coaster on the personal front. But even during the toughest times, those 8-10hrs in office, away from all that and doing what I love, with the most supportive people around was what kept me going. Thank you for always believing in me and pushing me to become a better me. I will really cherish today forever”🥹😁

For Rachit, who is fighting a recurring illness that compels him to take long breaks from work, work breaks his ‘blues’. A little better, he promptly reaches out to the team “Please assign some work to me”. Only those that go through such lows know how healing and assuring work can be.  

For some of the young mothers in my team, I believe they look forward to returning from their maternity leaves and getting back to work, albeit in a phased manner. It fills them with a renewed confidence and self-esteem even as they struggle to manage their dual roles – work is welcomed in their 2nd innings !

Well, while for me it was getting away from the weekend, for others work could mean a lot more – curative, transformative, reassuring, meaningful and adding purpose to life. So long as we learn how to respect it, how to manage it, how to benefit from it without becoming a workaholic or enslaved to it, we can stay happy, healthy and empowered !

India’s regulators were super busy during October, going by the number of updates that we have compiled in this 305th issue of Samhita. Be that as it may, it is heartening to see that some of our readers are tracking if we have carried all the relevant news updates released in a month or not. Some of them even call us and share what corrections are required to be made. Thanks to their diligence, our team is kept on its toes as well. We carry IEPF updates of Sep, 2024 along with several released by MCA, RBI, DGFT, GST, IT, SEBI, IBBI during October. RBI’s detailed instructions on Reporting on various matters, appearing on its FIRMS portal is not to be missed even as we await a notification in this regard.

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