Writer Anantica Sahir: Dreams should not be achieved at the cost of our health and happiness

In our fast paced lifestyle, personal relationships have taken a backseat. We all are in pursuit of dreams and goals, and forget to live our life to the fullest. Anantica Sahir, who has written shows such as Navya, Malika Ka Swayamwar- Bachelorette, Humse Hai Life, Kehta Hai Dil Jee Le Zara, Itti Si khushi, Hello Pratibha, Vishkanya and Nima Denzongpa, talks about how our life has changed.

“Dreams should not be achieved at the cost of our health and happiness. While I am all for chasing your dreams as well as working hard, there has to be a good work and personal life balance. In the end, when you have reached where you want professionally, you should have no regrets. As a family both Ssudeep (Sahir; actor) and I ensure we only take up the amount of work we can handle. Not only does it give us enough time with each other and our son but also improves the quality of our work. Balancing is the key,” she says.

Time management has gone for a toss as mobiles keep us accessible to people unavoidably. Agreeing, she adds, “I really miss those times when everyone wasn’t easily and readily accessible to each other. Although it is helpful in case of emergency to be able to reach out to your loved ones, it does get suffocating when others don’t value your privacy and space. Even if I turn my phone on silent, I still can’t ignore reading a text message or addressing a call. One may hate it but there is no escaping it.”

Most of us have become mobile and WhatsApp addicts. Many feel that it has become more bane than boon, while some do not agree.

“Honestly, I am divided on this one. I remember when I was a student, studying in the UK and dating my husband, it was so expensive to call or text each other. I wish we had Whatsapp then. But now as a grown up, I feel that it sometimes gets annoying with constant forwards and promotional messages. Whether I like it or not, I am highly addicted to my phone. I literally sleep with it,” she adds.

Technology on one hand has improved the speed of our work but it has killed our personal time. “I am guilty of spending too much time on my phone whether it is recreation or work. There is some level of restlessness when I don’t have my phone around, just because I am so dependent on it. There was a time when I started writing and my son was a newborn, I used to write screenplays on my phone as he wouldn’t let me work on my laptop,” she says.

There are still people who don’t use Whatsapp and there are people who are not on instagram. “I feel, to each its own. Instagram and WhatsApp are all about personal preferences. It’s not like people weren’t functioning before these apps existed. I personally need them for work and keeping in touch with what’s going on around,” she opines.

Thanks to social media, relationships lack emotional expression these days. “I feel one chooses to show only what they want to. I have shared my happy times like holidays, festivals etc as well as my lowest time when I lost my mum, all on social media. No one can invade your privacy unless you want them to,” she states.