Quality of Life - a few Thoughts

Quality of Life - a few Thoughts

Aniruddha Sarkar

14 August 2023

(On the eve of the 77th Independence Day of India on 15th August 2023)

How to interpret the quality of life?

When in our teens in the 1960s and 1970s, we used to long for reading good books outside the school syllabus.

We didn't have much access to many good libraries in our rural areas in West Bengal, India.

The daily newspapers, especially two daily Bengali Newspapers (Jugantar and Basumati) and one English Newspaper (The Statesman Kolkata edition) would satisfy our reading thirst a bit.

In addition, story books from local libraries, mostly Bengali and English literature, would provide us with some fodder for learning and knowing the world outside.

There was enough academic pressure from secondary-level schools. Even then, we could grow and sustain our reading habits.

Playing with friends in the vast open village grounds and swimming in large water bodies used to be another kind of fun.

At home, doing a few errands with responsibility was another kind of learning.

We spent our teenage in great natural surroundings. The greenery, the fresh air, the starry nights, the healthy homecooked foods, the abundance of sunshine, the quietness of the dark electricity-less nights, and the great community living among many festivities are a few of the highlights.

We had a simple ordinary lifestyle. But we had an abundance of warmth. We would huddle together in a joint family setup. Our elders would protect us from any adversities.

I feel that was high quality of life from childhood till our teenage.

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During our high school and college educations, we were lucky to be under the guidance of the best quality teachers and professors.

During the post-independence era of India, the teachers used to not only guide us on specific subjects, but they would also teach us ethics. They used to teach us how we could become useful in Nation Building.

Our Technology College and University faculties used to teach us all newer frontiers of science and technologies.

We had an abundance of books, journals, and contemporary literature stacked in our university libraries.

And, mind it, we received our school and college education from the government absolutely free!

We had among us a few professors of national and international repute.

They were simple people by their lifestyle, but outstanding by their achievements. A few of them left their lucrative assignments abroad and came back to their homeland, India, to teach.

We used to read technical books of our professors that were published by reputed international publishers and were in high demand internationally.

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At the workplace, we had tougher assignments, full of challenges. However, there were fun and frolic that made our workplaces less stressful.

During the post-independence era in India, our organizations used to expect rapid productivity and self-reliance. We did have homegrown as well as foreign technologies at our disposal, and we would make the best use of those. If required, we would innovate.

As a consequence, the productivity of Indian Industries went up in leaps and bounds.

My forty years of participation in the Indian Information Technology industry were full of challenges (please see footnote).

We had a moderate pay structure, but we had a hundred per cent work satisfaction.

We were given a free hand in self-learning, planning, designing, and execution with full ownership.

Mistakes were treated as steps to learning.

There was mutual trust across the ranks.

There was mutual professional respect between a junior and a senior colleague.

There were recognition and growth.

People used to contribute to a single organization for decades.

There was respect in society for the good contributions of ordinary workers.

These are the general observations of a person like me, born in the late 1950s, in independent India.

To me, this is a great quality of life that our generation enjoyed.

We are not super rich today. But we are contended and happy that we could participate in the Nation Building.

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Note: For those who may want to read further on my specific tech journey towards nation-building, do read this short story:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-does-take-do-something-worthwhile-nation-few-thoughts-sarkar