Here, we have R&R every 12 weeks and the organisation will pay some amount which is around USD 600. We get 5 working days leave during R&R, and we can go to any place we like to rest. I normally club with my annual leave and get two weeks of time which will be enough to visit our home country.
This time I left on 15th of December from Banda Aceh by Garuda Airlines to Medan. I stayed over night in Medan and boarded Silk Air the next morning to Singapore. I had a long transit from 12 Noon to 8:30 PM in Singapore Airport to catch my next flight to Hyderabad.
Transit in Singapore is not at all a problem for me, because there are several things to do. If you have transit time of more than 5 hours, you can even go out for a small toure into the city for free. I always carry LAN cable with me, and plug in to one of the internet terminals and connect my laptop. The Internet is very high speed, and this time I have down loaded several christmas songs and MIDIs.
When I get tired, I go to free massage chairs and massage my body and legs for some time. There are lot of shopping stalls where you can just stoll for window shopping. Singaporeans are quite well mannered and nice people. So you feel like spending more time there.
That means, rest and relaxation has already started during the travel itself. This time, I didn't wanted to take the laptop. But I don't know why, but at the last minute, I had some pending mails to send, and also becuase of night halt at Medan and long transit at Singapore, I finally tucked the laptop into my bag.
I arrived in Hyderabad at 11:00 PM, and by the time I got out of the airport, it was 12:00 PM. My sweetheart Swarupa was waiting out side along with my Cousins.
During my stay, I didn't open the laptop to work for a single time. So, that was good. I didn't check my email all through the three weeks, which is very unusual. I completely spent time with my family and little bit with friends.
R&R really helps us to get a break from monotonus life in the work place. We work for at least 12 hours a day, and during the week ends also. So, this break is very essential to recharge your whole system. Other wise, its very easy for workaholics like me to neglect family, friends, society, relationships, spirituality, sensitivity, creativity, values, morality, character, love and many others. Finally we turn into a beast like personality.
This time, I observed how my children are growing, understood some thing more about my wife and so on. We have also visited my brother in law, who was operated for Cancer. When we spent time with them in the hospital, we also saw the terrible condition of other patients in the hospital. Some patients are fortunate to have caring people with them, while some don't. When people fall sick, there is no culture in the society to support them financially. Some times, some close friends come forward to give money on credit, but it is generally understood that the family has to support themselves.
We require a society who can support each other in terms of crisis. This happens when people are accountable to each other in their day to day life. When I worked with EFICOR in India, one of the organisational strategic objective for 2001-06 is to develop CARE GROUPS through out the country, who will support each other. This wonderful concept was developed by then General Director Mr. C B Samuel.
I came back to Banda Aceh only on Saturday, 6th of January, 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment