Are You Missing Your Work-Life Balance? Waiting for Your Retirement to Enjoy Your Life? Looking Back at the Wonderful Life of Tamil People to See What All We Have Missed!

 Devesh was preparing an application for a grant for his project on Folk songs of various states of India. At that time I was searching for some research articles and was surprised to see one ‘Folk music in the life of Tamilnad’ by Shyamala Balakrishnan in the year 1969.(Note the year!)

Reading that, I could understand the worth of the life our ancestors lived. She explains the scene in a typical village: In the early hours before dawn, the temple bells are ringing. Various drums are throbbing. Pipes of different shapes and kinds are blown. The courtyards of the houses are swept clean by rustic, feminine hands that add beautiful and complicated patterns of kolam (rangoli). Palm and coconut leaf festoons crisscross the streets, Plantain trees with fruits, and areca nut trees with tender shoots decorate entrances of holy places.

The women pray to the flawless flame of the lamp (jothi) which symbolizes divinity and prosperity and to the holy tulsi plant, their guardian angel. The girls are busy performing kummi, a community dance popular among women around the mulaippari.! The children in their best costumes run about enjoying the various folk dances around the temple. They are equally attracted by the colourful petty shops, selling sweetmeats, toys, etc.

The poosari (chief priest) attracts a big crowd around him with his devotional music on the chief deity with the rhythms of the udukku. Villagers from far and near attend the festival, some trekking long distances and others arriving by canopied and decorated bullock carts. They camp in shady groves, cook their own food, and offer worship to the deity in whose honour the festival is held. They roam about the village in a relaxed holiday mood, attend all-night shows of folk entertainment, and return home with a complete sense of satisfaction and exhilaration.

Nostalgic, right? Have you ever enjoyed such wonderful festival celebrations in your native village? Visualize the scene, how do you feel? Do you want to enjoy one such festival? 

 In those days, people had folk music as part of their life. Folk music and dance are a spontaneous expression of people’s feelings of joy and sorrow, hope and aspirations, and disappointments. The songs are based on various themes: Devotion, love, laughter, epic heroes, and human emotions and feelings. 

For any work, they were doing, particularly, agriculture  (Yetram, while fetching water, Kulavai, while transplanting, Themmangu while transporting grains …),  and fishing, there were songs to relieve the burden of their work. 

There were festival songs for any small and big festivals, Karagam with Naiyandimelam, Kavadi, Kummi, etc... Do you remember, there would be a colourful ceremony called Poononbu when girls would go around in search of flowers, collect colourful flowers, and enjoy with friends?  

When people gather at any festival they will enjoy the recreational folk songs: Ladies will perform Kummi, Kolattam, Pinnal Kolattam, and men will be doing Oyilkummi, Kaichilambu, Silambam, Adimurai, etc. Villupattu, Poikkal Kuthirai, Bommalattam, and Therukkuthu are other kinds of entertaining folk forms. I, in my late fifties, am aware of only a few of these, next generation?

For any special occasion, starting from birth to death, folk music played a prominent part. The lullabies by the Tamil mothers were rich both in music and also in the content. I know one song, partially but! Recently, I saw my niece singing a movie song to put her daughter to sleep, that too was a high-beat song!

They enjoyed singing folk songs in all the ceremonies performed during the period of pregnancy like Masakkai, Valaikappu, Seemantham, and Poochootal. You will be surprised to note that they even sang beautiful songs with a spiritual slant to celebrate nuptials which shows the people were very well socialised their emotions!

Beggars addressed the lady of the house with songs that contained nice philosophical meaning! That is again one form of folk song!

Finally, Oppari(dirges) are the songs recited on the spot in praise of the departed. The men and women related to the person dead will coin the verses quoting the good deeds done by him. These also will be highly philosophical in meaning.  

Can you see how the people lived their lives meaningfully, thoroughly enjoying each and every phase of their lives? Their focus was on relationships not on money or physical facilities. 

The author of the article I mentioned in the beginning says “The people have always had a creative faculty and whenever they were impressed by something new they were inspired by it and did not blindly imitate it. Now, times have changed. They are becoming passive spectators of films as a result of which they merely imitate and try to follow.” This she said in 1969! Now? We have come a long way away from such a community where people were working and enjoying simultaneously. 

Oh, don’t hit me, don’t hit! I strongly agree that we can not go back to that life! At least we can have a good work-life balance if we mindfully manage our time!

While it is true that you need a job to provide food, shelter, and security, it’s not ensured that your job will fulfill your life’s purpose. Society and our intellect dictate that the jobs we do every day will take care of our every need. But, it can take care of only the needs of the body(food, shelter, safety), not the needs of ourselves (Happiness)! Can you see that?

We developed the belief in the standard model of Western life of "Work, Save and Retire, and then you can have a lot more happiness"! Actually, you need not wait until your retirement to enjoy it. Today and your entire lifetime is there for you to do the things that make you joyful, let us enjoy every moment rather than wait for retirement! Who knows after retirement we might get some other commitment postponing our happiness!