Lot of people are clueless about enjoying leisure: Envoy

Leading a civilised life is impossible without leisure, which enriches people to make good judgement, but a lot many have no clue how to enjoy it, a senior diplomat and a writer said here on Friday.

"As a diplomat, my job is to travel. But I think there is something about taking time to enjoy and appreciate what you see and observe. That actually enriches us as people," Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu said.

She said this after launching the book "The Pleasures of Leisure" written by Australian writer Robert Dessaix at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2018.

 

Citing from the book, she said: "Without leisure, a civilised life is impossible."

The Australian writer pointed out there is no balance in our private life and imbalances exists in the society.

"People work harder and harder and they retire with the hope that they will enjoy leisure. But they do not know how to do it. (On the other hand) Some people, in society, are not working at all. There is no balance. We want everyone to work little bit and have lot more leisure. Our political masters do not want this," he said.

According to Dessaix, people are always "switched on" and they are never "unplugged". Getting off-line becomes a luxury. Criticising the social media, he said people have been losing the "art of intimacy".

Asked how important leisure is in the globalised competitive world, Sindhu said: "We have to take out time to digest every piece of information and things we see. Unless we do that, we can't make good judgement.

"It is important to move away from noise, taking time off for leisure to care for ourselves, to get the rest we need, to do thinking we need and to do best choices in our life."

Responding to whether "quality leisure" becomes imperative to be productive in the workplace, she said: "Yes, it is but not just (to be productive) at the workplace, but I think (it is imperative) to be a complete human being. You need to play, work and rest. We do not focus on resting part..."

--IANS

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