Purpose of life

[Returning_Indian]

join some sort of club..go early in the morning comeback only in the evening.. hang out in the library.. read the newspaper cover to cover for 3 hours, get some workouts in.. massage every now and then. sleep in the afternoons.. pickup some new sport or hobby. pick up new friends ,host a boys night out every week with these new friends. explore your city..

i had an uncle who would get on a particular number bus and ride that route from start to finish. occasionally a stop would pique his interest (a temple or a place of interest that he wanted to further investigate) and he would get down and post exploring, get back on the bus.. rinse, repeat on a different route/line.. he had many different stories that he would regale us with.. my aunt happy to get him off her hair would pack a nice lunch with some snacks and send him on his way.. he would do this as often as he wanted..

I gave smartphones to both my parents. They were hooked instantly. My father, a technophobe, surprisingly took on it as well. Now they spend their time on phones instead of picking fights with each other. Downside is whatsapp university warnings, and subsequent teachings I have to hear from my mom. I get these forwards from her frequently.

They are yet to be exposed to reel addiction as they are only used to FB, YT. Once they get addicted to reels, I am afraid they may just forget about me or even worse forget to feed themselves.

Unlimited calling by Jio also gave my mother an opportunity to talk to her sisters for hours everyday. She expects me to do the same and give her every bit of information from my house. My wife gets upset if I do and my mom is not happy if I don't.

[SAPPORO]

join some sort of club..go early in the morning comeback only in the evening.. hang out in the library.. read the newspaper cover to cover for 3 hours, get some workouts in.. massage every now and then. sleep in the afternoons.. pickup some new sport or hobby. pick up new friends ,host a boys night out every week with these new friends. explore your city..

i had an uncle who would get on a particular number bus and ride that route from start to finish. occasionally a stop would pique his interest (a temple or a place of interest that he wanted to further investigate) and he would get down and post exploring, get back on the bus.. rinse, repeat on a different route/line.. he had many different stories that he would regale us with.. my aunt happy to get him off her hair would pack a nice lunch with some snacks and send him on his way.. he would do this as often as he wanted..

I gave smartphones to both my parents. They were hooked instantly. My father, a technophobe, surprisingly took on it as well. Now they spend their time on phones instead of picking fights with each other. Downside is whatsapp university warnings, and subsequent teachings I have to hear from my mom. I get these forwards from her frequently.

They are yet to be exposed to reel addiction as they are only used to FB, YT. Once they get addicted to reels, I am afraid they may just forget about me or even worse forget to feed themselves.

Unlimited calling by Jio also gave my mother an opportunity to talk to her sisters for hours everyday. She expects me to do the same and give her every bit of information from my house. My wife gets upset if I do and my mom is not happy if I don't.

I would ban the reels if I could!
It reduces the attention span as in those addicted want to go on their phone even while watching movies/shows on TV and increases cacophony as they play it so loud that they forget about others!
We face the same issue of "too much communication". Gone are the days of peace with $1 a minute phone calls, now don't know when my DW would go on a WA video call and ask me "Do you recognize this aunty that came to our wedding reception?"

[old-spice2]

It reduces the attention span as in those addicted want to go on their phone even while watching movies/shows on TV and increases cacophony as they play it so loud that they forget about others!
We face the same issue of "too much communication". Gone are the days of peace with $1 a minute phone calls, now don't know when my DW would go on a WA video call and ask me "Do you recognize this aunty that came to our wedding reception?"

You should say "you had a crush on that aunty".

[SemiRetire]

I FiREd in May 2020 and I have no issues in following a routine and killing time. Days, weeks and months vanish into thin air. The only time I had issues with killing time was on my visit to India since I was not able to continue my routine.

I echo this. I did the same in 2020 September for personal reasons.

[fire_india]

on the other hand, even after FIRE.
I am as busy as ever.
hours of reading, buying and selling stocks.
Travel planning. searching reviews on what to buy, where to go out, what to eat.
exercise, diet, lifestyle plans.
meeting friends, family, vacations.

[wd40]

After 3+ months into retirement, facing similar issues. What to do in life? Shudder to think how to spend next 20+ years. Moving to India was the right decision, no doubt about that. Social environment in US was not to my liking or interest. Felt more isolated/bored out there. Feeling bored in India but at least it is better to feel bored at lower cost of living and not worry constantly about medical appointment/insurance.

I knew about this issue few years back, so kept pushing the retirement. Wanted to get out in 2022 but managed two more years. Cannot work in India after 60, but in US it was possible to work for another 5 years but not 40 hrs/week. More like 20 hrs/week as I need afternoon nap. If I work in US longer, then may grow older and will be lot difficult to move back at 65/70. Even at 60 it was a herculean task to sell all the stuff, pack the rest in the container and resettle. Now anxiously waiting for the container to arrive and there is no space in the current house. Wish the container falls into the ocean, problem solved. But will lose 10+ giant packs of Charmin Ultra.

DW suggest to take up teaching. Students will suffer and am not a good teacher. Social work - cannot do anything that is physically demanding like moving to rural area and work in a village. One of my friend did that in MH but he was in his 40s then.

I know my former manager became president of local city council and volunteers at SD Zoo. Being a white he will fit into those roles but I cannot do that. Still trying to figure out what to do with life?

Don't do anything which you don't like. Think about it this way, imagine life is a video game. You are the main character and you suddenly got killed. Then you got another chance to live again.

How would you like to live this new life you received? None of us can suggest to you what you should do, because our interests are deeply personal.

Everyday you wake up, think it is a new lease of life what you can do with the day? What excites you? We all have only one life and think about time as a precious resource that is diminishing and how do you want to spend it?

As Indians because we came from poverty, we didn't develop any interests. Until now, every action we took, we needed some monetary motivation. Like if sing, who will listen to me? Whether I can make a career out of it? If I take up cricket, will I be able to play well? Etc now you can detach the monetary motivation and do stuff for the real interest of it, without expecting any reward.

[wd40]

Just came across this brilliant speech by a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz: “Don’t follow your passion”
There is video at the end of the post, I think it is brilliant, especially for young people, maybe even for older people.

To summarise he says, it is much more important what we can give back to the world than what we can take back from the world. So we should look at what we good at in terms of contribution to the world.

[nodegree]

...
To summarise he says, it is much more important what we can give back to the world than what we can take back from the world. So we should look at what we good at in terms of contribution to the world.
...

That's rich coming from a VC guy who cofounded Andressen Horowtiz which sucks out value like a vampire from everything.

[r2somewhere]

90% of Indians dont have any passion anyway. Unless you count base urges as passions. Having a passion required a well rounded primary education that exposes kids to the possibilities out there. Most Indians dont have that.

[RBee]

As Indians because we came from poverty, we didn't develop any interests. Until now, every action we took, we needed some monetary motivation. Like if sing, who will listen to me? Whether I can make a career out of it? If I take up cricket, will I be able to play well? Etc now you can detach the monetary motivation and do stuff for the real interest of it, without expecting any reward.

LOL wd40, there are 5.1 milion(51 lakh) Indian origin people living in US.
Members who login to forum on regular basis ~ 10. Members to this club in last 10 months <130. The old forum too never became lucrative because people who want to return to India are tiny and not because they are discouraged by naysayers!!
So based on this tiny tiny sample, you give a statement that we Indians don’t have passions outside money making?
Indians in bay area where I live have regular participation in running clubs, hiking clubs, singing clubs, book reading clubs, children play date clubs etc etc
I see lot of people engage in voluntary activities which I started too after my kids left for college.
I at 47 have plenty of life left and I live life like YOLO and I see similar minded people around me! Reason that binds me to India(hence this site) is my mom/sisters live there and I am a firm believer that whatever I am today is due to upbringing/values instilled by my Indian parents and sisters; I also belive that Janani Janmabhumishcha swargadapi gariyasi ("Mother and motherland are greater than Heaven.”)! If I return to India for retirement, I will be happy but if that doesn’t happen for whatever reason, that doesn’t stop me enjoying whatever I have today! I learnt this hard lesson after kids left for higher education and became occasional visitors!
I am writing this from a community club’s hall waiting for other volunteers to join with our weekend cleaning activity around lake.
In order to enjoy life, you need to find people with similar interests(and not statuses) and omit money from the equation.

I know some members from old forums(unfortunately they didn’t join here and don’t know why) are examples of Indians with passion in multiple fields. They were walking encyclopedia on sports (Tennis, NFL, NBA, Cricket etc) and taught at chinmyanand on Hindu epics, equally knowledgeable in books, Kannada/Hindi movies/songs etc, spoke 5 languages while being at high positions in companies they worked !