Page - 1

'The Citi Never Sleeps' - I remember - was once the tag line of Citi Bank, emphasizing that they have 24X7 work environment and you can get the banking services at any time of the day. Great was the response from the people who had never heard of any such thing in their lives and 24X7 almost became a phenomenon.

It appears that if today some one is not 24X7, then possibly he/she is either useless or is living in the pre-historic era. Anyone and everyone who is just some one can be found happily saying that they are living in a 24X7 environment and that they cant afford to be left out. Today, you name a thing and it is 24X7. We have 24X7 news channels, banking services, BPOs, restaurants, universities and the list is practically endless.

True, today we are living in an environment where more is less, where fast is normal and 24X7 is more a norm than exception. But what is equally true is the fact that it still takes nine months for the birth of the child. Despite the tremendous advances in technology and speed in the so-called 24X7 era, nature has kept its own pace and there are no short cuts available for it. Whether 24X7 culture is good or bad, let we all learn it by experience, but the fallouts of it will certainly affect human lives in more ways than the benefits it will generate in the long run.

If we look at our lives today (for which most of us don't have time these days), we are 24X7 occupied. Especially in large cities like Delhi, Mumbai, a lot of our time goes in commuting, then our time goes into checking e-mails, calling and messaging and the remaining time goes in meetings. And in between, we have thousands and thousands of items trying to catch our attention. Its like a mad-rush where every one is just running and running, regardless of what is the end-point or does it matter to be a part of mad rush. Every now and then, I come across people who are in such a hurry that they even can't sit down properly and are running for nothing. I don't know about all, but it is the case with most of us. We are running after what we don't know but proudly we admit that we are living in a 24X7 environment. To most of us, there is absolutely no clue of where our lives are heading, and it is only late in our lives when we realize that we were trying to climb the wrong ladder. Many people give up their whole lives only to regret later, (in the name of priorities) pursuing things they would have never done had other options been in place.

Next

* Contributed by -
Vineet Tandon is an MBA from ICFAI Business School, Batch of 2004. Currently, he looks after Corporate Communications at GEODESIC Information Systems Ltd. Views expressed here are personal.