I continue with my trilogy on the adjustments in the early phase of my retirement.

For me, this transition was smooth — from “all work and no play” to a life where every day was Sunday. However, it wasn’t quite the same for people around me, who had lived on a “less is more” basis where I was concerned.

Ravi had retired seven years before I did and had carved out a comfortable routine for himself. Over the last two years of my work life (during COVID and all the way till I hung up my boots), we had several touch points during the day — besides meal times, we would catch up in between meetings to chitchat. Weekends continued to be packed with doing things together.

I was under the impression that he was starved of my company and would now welcome my presence on a 24×7 basis.

The initial few days post my retirement were rather perplexing. I actually got the impression that he did not like my omnipresence in his life.

I had several levels of response to this behaviour — I was surprised at first, annoyed next, and eventually became angry. Mercifully, we had a sit down to understand what was going on and he calmly outlined how it could be fixed.

I too thought it through and realised that having more time on hand did not mean that I needed to spend all of it with him. I certainly needed to deepen my connect with him but I also needed to give him space.

We could pick things we couldn’t do when I was working (e.g. have longer travel plans, more frequent outings to meet friends and relatives, and so on) but I had to identify other avenues too that would give me joy and fulfilment.

In no time, I updated my Life Scorecard entries (more on this in another blog) and saw my happiness quotient (more on this too) reach the levels I wanted!