Should our jobs define who we are?

The weirdest job I ever had lasted all of 48 hours and involved the selling of cardboard spectacles to people interested in looking at a solar eclipse The glasses allegedly had a protective coating of some sort that enabled wearers to stare at the sun without the risk of losing their eyesightEach pair cost around R5 if I remember correctly and I stood to earn Rs 2 for every sale The actual selling was at a booth in EsselWorld a nowfaded amusement park off the coast of Malad that was once a magical kingdom enticing schoolchildren across BombayI was hired along with two of my friends and we sold those glasses for three days to anyone and everyone who stopped by our booth At the end of that period though we realised we had lost more money than we had earned because we hadnt factored in the cost of travelling to and from EsselWorld There were train and bus rides involved and a ferry from Marve beach I think we all gave up on dreams of becoming entrepreneurs that dayAnother job I remember in great detail involved manning a drinks stall at Brabourne stadium for a Deep Purple concert This involved handing out coupons asking customers what aerated cola they preferred and then filling glasses with ice and liquid as quickly as possible We were paid by the hour and saw a hugely popular rock band for freeI also spent a few months as a research assistant for a pharmaceutical company which was a fancy way of describing the young men and women who stood outside chemists asking customers if they wanted a free sample of a new brand of throat lozenges There were other gigs some paid by the hour others by the week all involving dubious tasks that sometimes involved physical labourThe interesting thing about what I did in the aftermath of those parttime rites of passage is how little I remember of the more established career that followed There were roles titles positions in national and global firms almost none of which have stayed with me beyond the odd memory of a colleague or specific eventWhen I look at my CV today vast swathes hide beneath a fog I struggle to break through I remember most of my time in corporate India with a mixture of amusement and confusion and sometimes wonder why I spent the years I did on tasks that signified a lot but rarely accomplished anything of meritI am not naive enough to believe that everything we do for a living must matter Capitalism has sunk its tentacles into us deeply enough for me to acknowledge that job security homes insurance policies and retirement funds are more important than ever before especially in a world where employment is a lot harder to come by than it was when our parents graduatedAnd yet the older I get the more I start to question why we do what we do and what we hope to accomplish by doing it When youth decide to get into politics today for instance what are their reasons What do they choose to do with the power they hope to get access toThe fact that these questions arent asked as often as they ought to be to ourselves as well as to young people in our families may explain why so many young Indians gravitate towards specific roles and industries The professions that were considered safe mdash doctors lawyers bankers engineers mdash continue to fill seats at educational institutions but I often wonder how many of those who graduate walk away with a desire to do more than just retire richThere is an inherent snobbery in choosing professions that our parents encourage us to respect more than others This snobbery is often overt because thinking we are better than everyone else comes naturally to us as Indians and is entrenched in a caste system that dominates the lives of millions around us We should have more conversations about our careers though and reevaluate what they mean Bankers arent as respected as they once were for instance because they have played with money that isnt theirs for too long It may be time for other oncerespectable professions to have their day of reckoning tooMaybe if we encouraged more young people to become teachers instead of engineers and environmentalists instead of politicians we may have a better country than the one our parents left usWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates