Work and Wine

Work and Wine

Jakarta city is quiet today because the exodus from the city for the Muslim Lebaran holidays has already begun. I have decided to spend the next couple of days finishing off some of my work. I need the peace and quiet to think and concentrate.

The Lebaran holidays is a week-long thing; it should have been a good time for me to visit some of the places I've always wanted to visit. But unfortunately the exodus out of Jakarta makes it impossible to get any flight to any domestic location since a month ago. Also the places I'm interested to visit--museums and libraries--are closed. I have no choice but to spend a couple of days here working before flying back to KL--the only MAS flight I could get is on Tuesday night.

And before I think about going home I have to make sure that I am productive for the next four days. I am not very happy with my workrate lately. I really need to ramp up my productivity. As much as I dislike it, I have to force myself to think only of the report that I am trying to complete in the coming days. No extraneous reading.

My marathon work session started last night. Got a nice bottle of red wine to fuel my work. Being the "mystical" person that I am, I try to see work as a form of worship. Work for work's sake. To work without caring for the fruits of your labour is the highest ideal. No unwholesome karma is generated if we are not attached to the fruits of our labour. That is the secret of work, according to Vivekananda. That is the essence of karma yoga.

I don't think I am even close to achieving such an ideal. But it is fun to think I'm practising karma yoga everytime I'm labouring through a difficult task. Makes every mundane task seems divine. And of course the wine helps too.