Rhythmic work
Memories Recollection Series - Episode 3
Long back, when my children were small, may be 1990s, I used to enjoy reading their comics, especially Chacha Chowdhury & Saboo series.
In one particular story, one person in Chacha Chowdhury’s village finds a magic wand, and he could, with just movement of a hand, summon Gin (a supernatural big man who could do any job), and he was there to do any job he was instructed for. But Gin had one strange condition. He could not sit idle. He had to be put to regular job 24/7, or Gin said, he will eat his master.
This person made Gin do all kind of impossible jobs, but Gin was able to accomplish every task given to him. Very soon, this person ran out of ideas, and fearing for his life, this person came to Chacha Chowdhury for his advice.
Chacha Chowdhury asked Gin to bring a truck load of potatoes, which he made available in no time. Then Chacha Chowdhury instructed him to empty the truck, and Gin was about to fulfill this order, Chacha Chowdhury told Gin to segregate good and bad potatoes, and keep good potatoes on right side, and bad potatoes on left side. Now, as Gin started picking up potatoes one by one, by looking at the shape of potatoes, he wasn’t sure whether that is good potato or bad, and all the speed with which he earlier used to work came to almost stand-still.
It is said, that Gin in Chacha Chowdhury’s village is still working on sorting out potatoes, good and bad.
What happened here. As long as job was a routine job, and involved no use of discretion, the job was getting accomplished no matter how difficult the job it was.
For that matter, if you look around various kinds of jobs people are engaged in, in offices - 9 - 5 jobs, in factories, in market place, in households, you shall find that as long as job is repetitive (say, cashier receiving cash and issuing receipts, or accounting jobs, where accountants are making entries in ledger books, or accountants are doing some kind of an excel worksheet, you shall find that, people in general, are happy doing such repetitive jobs, because it becomes rhythmic, processing every such routine transaction, following the pattern.
Now let’s look at one more perespective. Just think of the music we enjoy. Other than the lyrics and melodious voice of the singer, it is the beats in the song, i.e., repetitive use of cross section of musical instruments being used (rhythmic notes), which holds our attention, and we get accustomed to, and we fall in trap of comforting repetitive use of musical notes in any given pattern.
In nut-shell, repetitive jobs are rhythmic, and creates a sense of comfort among the human beings, and most of us are therefore look forward to such rhythmic work. Jobs, which on the other hand, require use of discretion, a kind of some research/analysis as a part of process of work, is the one which challenges human beings and has to be most endeared.
I did some soul searching then, and consciously shrugged off my comfort zone, and landed myself in challenging work environment, helping myself find my mojo.
Review, which side of the fence you are. May be, it helps you take a leap forward.