The Real Worth of Work

What do a pilot, a parent, and a postman have in common? They all work—but not always for the same reason. Some earn salaries, others give their time and energy without expecting a rupee. But does that make one kind of work more important than the other?

Not really.

In everyday life, we see people doing different things: a father driving to work, a mother helping her child with homework, a grandmother tending to plants, or a teenager volunteering at a community event. Some of these are economic activities—they bring in money. Others are non-economic—they don’t bring in income, but they bring in love, care, respect, and social value.

Take Kabir and Anu from our story. Their world is filled with people who do both kinds of work. A pilot in uniform serves the nation and earns a salary. A retired grandfather teaches kids for free. Their mother helps at a shop but also teaches knitting to others just out of kindness. Every action contributes something valuable.

So, what’s this “value” we keep talking about?

Sometimes it’s easy to measure: like when a carpenter buys wood for ₹600 and sells the chair he makes for ₹1,000. That ₹400 extra? That’s value added through his skill. But sometimes, value isn’t in rupees—it's in smiles, in progress, in community.

Festivals, langars, Swachh Bharat campaigns—all thrive because of people who give their time, not for money, but for the joy of giving back. That’s what we call sevā—selfless service.

At the end of the day, we need both kinds of work to keep our lives moving—paid work that builds the economy, and unpaid work that builds the soul.

So the next time you see someone working—whether they’re sweeping a street, coding a website, or cooking dinner—just pause for a moment and smile. Because every job is valuable.