Vishnu told me this morning that he was not able to handle the stress of project management. His eyes lost focus; he was muttering incomprehensibly and asking me for advice. I told him not to take professional career so seriously. I told him to adopt a “Take it Easy” approach towards his job. It may not help him retain that Star Performer tag but it will work wonders for his heart and his blood pressure.

“When you are in the office, you shouldn’t think about home. When you are back home you shouldn’t think about office.” I told him.

Whether or not Vishnu will heed to my advice and thereby forego any chance of getting promoted up the ladder is best left to Vishnu’s discretion. However I’ve been thinking about myself since this morning.

“Am I actually practicing what I have preached?”

The answer is a big no. Just a few days back it was the appraisal that made me tense. Before that, it was the release of the third phase of my project. The project deadlines were fast approaching and the MPP (Microsoft Project Plan) was not getting balanced at all. I had burnt the midnight oil many times during the last six months to get the MPP back in shape every week so that the status report numbers looked sane enough for the senior management.

What was I telling him – Vishnu?

And then my kid was born. It was probably the best day of my life. April 14^th. My wife had traveled to Hyderabad for her delivery. I was in Chennai. Every Friday I had to board a late night flight (because it offered the cheapest ticket) to Hyderabad and every Monday, the early morning flight from Hyderabad to Chennai. This arrangement granted me two days with my wife and my new born son every week.

My son woke up at three in the night and slept only at eight in the morning. So those two days in Hyderabad were spent without much of sleep. Hence my Mondays were awful because of the travel and the sleeplessness.

Add to this the 100 kilometers I have to travel everyday to and from work. Three and a half hours are gone for travel everyday. It means I am out from my apartment at 7 in the morning and back to the apartment not before 10 in the night. So my servant maid cannot come to work on weekdays. Weekends I am not in Chennai. So I am paying my servant maid 500 rupees per month for doing absolutely nothing. My apartment is now in shambles – full of dust and ruled by lizards.

Everyday I go home at ten in the night and pray to God before I open the front door that the electricity board should not have disconnected power supply. It’s been ages since I gave the electricity bill to the apartment complex errands guy. I have not been able to track him ever since because of my odd timings.

I have to renew my car insurance and bike insurance. I have to pay the road tax which is due now. I have to get a new set of clutch plates for my rusting Santro. All these have been pending since times immemorial – since Genesis. I just don’t have the right attitude or the time to deal with these inconsistencies in life. I think I don’t have it in me to take life head on. I understand I have to shuttle between Hyderabad and Chennai as my personal life demands – and stay in Chennai as my professional life dictates.

My wife cannot come to Chennai with the baby because we don’t know anybody here in Chennai to take care of the baby while we both are out everyday. Our parents are not in a position to relocate to Chennai. So the only option seems to be leaving the baby there in Hyderabad with the grandparents and both of us shuttling between Chennai and Hyderabad every weekend. The very thought of leaving my kid there pains me immensely because I believe that my son has the right to grow up under the watchful eyes of my wife and me. Also I miss him terribly. Two days a week is not enough for me.

As I think about all these for writing this article, I realize something. I am doing justice to neither my work nor my family. I am a confused soul. Either both of us get transferred to Hyderabad or both of us quit and join some company in Hyderabad seems to be the only solution to this problem.

So what is the problem? I love the company I currently work for. I don’t want to quit it. They can’t transfer me now because of the current priorities. I hope at least my wife gets a transfer and moves to Hyderabad.

As for me! I will keep looking for those cheap ticket deals.