“It must have been 3 a.m. in the morning when my blackberry rang out in a James Brown “I Feel Good” tone. It was my old pal Ajay’s wife sobbing that Ajay had gone on a business trip to Mumbai and died in his sleep in a hotel room. The cause of death was a massive heart attack. Ajay was just 45 years old. Ever since I received that dreadful phone call, I have been introspecting, giving the old lifestyle models a cold hard look. I was trying to rediscover myself and restore the work-life balance and find a way to de-stress. Ajay used to take his official persona and designation so seriously that it became difficult to separate man from his visiting card. Taking time off for a vacation looked to him like a divorce. His last vacation was five years ago. For the last five years he also worked Saturday, Sunday or both days on the weekend. It was a tough decision for him to take off personal time when he believed many other people looked up to him for guidance. He just had to be always available for his team with advice or a sympathetic ear. He was universally feted as a jolly good fellow-everyone’s big brother. Then there was something horribly out of kilter with his funeral. For a busy man of the world and a universal do-gooder there were hardly eight or ten mourners of which three persons were his distraught wife and two teenage daughters. Most of his own family did not attend. Beneficiaries of his largesse from his office were conspicuous by the absence. He who forgot himself for the sake of others was being cremated all alone!! This situation raised several painful questions. Most of us believe our own lies and try to live to as cardboard cutout of ourselves. We need to show we are hard boiled professionals and so cram in as little leisure activities as possible – our increased workload is threatening to squeeze out our lives.