Two days back I was at a conclave of dancers, and some one asked me- "So you're full-time dancing aa?" And I wasn't sure what to say to that. And my reply like it is almost all the time was "Uhm...well....you know.. I dance yes...but I have a one and half year old daughter so...and I also do some medical writing...so you know"
And my audience is always bewildered. "So transcriptions aa?" [And as bad as it sounds I take offense to being associated with that line of 'writing' so] my quick retort is always "NOO...I write for research- you know journal papers [ 'regulatory documents' will be quite lost on most people who ask me these questions]...
In any case, I've been thinking a bit about what qualifies as full time, part time, hardly any time, time etc etc..
So,
I don't have an office to go to in the morning. No 9 to 5 job or 9 to 8 job like most 'working women'. So I'm apparently not qualified to say I work full-time.
I am a housewife it seems. But I travel for dance class everyday and for a Bangalorean that means half the day gone.. So since part of my day is spent travelling to and from dance class and an hour dancing in between am I a part-time dancer or traffic culprit?
I do some medical writing when the little one sleeps - which is about 2 to 3 hours on a good day. That's working 1/8th of the day...so.. part-time writing? or part of the part-time bit?
I spend about 4 hours in a day watching Chota bheem on Pogo (cos otherwise I catch my daughter watching some hideous videos on M TV or Sun Music)- So that makes me a Pogo fan no?! But it's quite torturous I assure you.
And then there's about 2 hours in all trying to make some food..that's the same amount of time as I write so I'm part-time cook? NO. Apparently it's just part of the job description of a stay-at-home mom. So no privileges there.
Somewhere in between all the madness, Daddy J and Mommy J say 'hi' to each other and sleep for about 7 hours....
And then there's about 20 hours worth playing/role-playing/scolding/ cleaning/ consoling/laughing/cleaning/ rolling/cuddling/ feeding /cleaning/potty-training/ re-cleaning and more cleaning and clearing.... so now THAT makes me a full-time ......... cleaner?
3 performances and 2 documents in a month, mud-infested play clothes in hand.... and "so full-time dancing aa?" Long way to go before I close in on my fellow full-time colleagues. Some with a 9 to 9 job, some with the infamous borderline obsession of an artiste, some hopelessly in love with their work and only that, some utterly frustrated with being full-time 'something'.... but of course the handful having a good time....
My answer to "fulltime?" .......... "Uhm...well...you know...I don't know..but I'm loving it!"
_________________________________________________________________________________
Writers' block if you'd like to call it that...or like I'd like to imagine- verrrry busy pah!!!! sooo busy that I just didn't find the time to write in..
It's half the year gone by and my days seem to get more and more fascinating/busy/frustrating at times/awesome mostly/whirlwind in general. It's a year of changes- many changes!
And my audience is always bewildered. "So transcriptions aa?" [And as bad as it sounds I take offense to being associated with that line of 'writing' so] my quick retort is always "NOO...I write for research- you know journal papers [ 'regulatory documents' will be quite lost on most people who ask me these questions]...
In any case, I've been thinking a bit about what qualifies as full time, part time, hardly any time, time etc etc..
So,
I don't have an office to go to in the morning. No 9 to 5 job or 9 to 8 job like most 'working women'. So I'm apparently not qualified to say I work full-time.
I am a housewife it seems. But I travel for dance class everyday and for a Bangalorean that means half the day gone.. So since part of my day is spent travelling to and from dance class and an hour dancing in between am I a part-time dancer or traffic culprit?
I do some medical writing when the little one sleeps - which is about 2 to 3 hours on a good day. That's working 1/8th of the day...so.. part-time writing? or part of the part-time bit?
I spend about 4 hours in a day watching Chota bheem on Pogo (cos otherwise I catch my daughter watching some hideous videos on M TV or Sun Music)- So that makes me a Pogo fan no?! But it's quite torturous I assure you.
And then there's about 2 hours in all trying to make some food..that's the same amount of time as I write so I'm part-time cook? NO. Apparently it's just part of the job description of a stay-at-home mom. So no privileges there.
Somewhere in between all the madness, Daddy J and Mommy J say 'hi' to each other and sleep for about 7 hours....
And then there's about 20 hours worth playing/role-playing/scolding/ cleaning/ consoling/laughing/cleaning/ rolling/cuddling/ feeding /cleaning/potty-training/ re-cleaning and more cleaning and clearing.... so now THAT makes me a full-time ......... cleaner?
3 performances and 2 documents in a month, mud-infested play clothes in hand.... and "so full-time dancing aa?" Long way to go before I close in on my fellow full-time colleagues. Some with a 9 to 9 job, some with the infamous borderline obsession of an artiste, some hopelessly in love with their work and only that, some utterly frustrated with being full-time 'something'.... but of course the handful having a good time....
My answer to "fulltime?" .......... "Uhm...well...you know...I don't know..but I'm loving it!"
_________________________________________________________________________________
Writers' block if you'd like to call it that...or like I'd like to imagine- verrrry busy pah!!!! sooo busy that I just didn't find the time to write in..
It's half the year gone by and my days seem to get more and more fascinating/busy/frustrating at times/awesome mostly/whirlwind in general. It's a year of changes- many changes!
:) thats an awesome post and makes me think - just some days I was talking to my husband about how blessed you must feel - being able to actively stay in touch with dance and here you are writing in a whole new perspective :)
ReplyDeleteI guess its this constant endeavour to keep doing something that actually takes us a long long way!!!
Kudos to you for doing what you are...just know I am so in AWE of you!
nivedita
O wow... thanks so much but you're embarrassing me.. im just trying to stay sane through all the madness in life...but then again, we chose this madness so i'm telling myself to enjoy being mad as well... :)
Delete