A recurring disagreement I have with my colleague is how we used to work together. One of us believed work is constrained within a nine-to-five, and the other found it impossible to truly switch off. While this did not come in the way of our individual work, things often came to a head when we collaborated. 

This tumultuous period is what comes to mind when we finalised the theme for the second volume of Humanise – Boundaries. 

The nature of our conformist world today has conditioned us to believe that there’s only one way to live and work. We don’t believe in fluidity, and are expected to hold our opinions close to our hearts despite our ever-evolving experiences and relationships. In my head, how society navigates and sets boundaries captures this overarching philosophy. 

People set boundaries for themselves. This is what we capture in Help, My Brain Doesn’t Know I’m OOO, where Sindhu Shivaprasad writes about boundaries in the era of knowledge work. Sometimes boundaries are built from introspection, or a lack of it. Nimesh takes a more abstract lens, addressing the blurring boundaries in perception and self-awareness. Some boundaries have been set before us, by the fabric of society. And often, our intrinsic boundaries find themselves conflicting with extrinsic ones. Take Akshat’s article about the harmless ways different cultures have conflicting opinions on what boundaries mean to them. Sairee Chahal, on the other hand, writes an expansive and hard-hitting piece about how women succeed despite the invisible boundaries in a workplace designed for, and by men. 

Coming back to my working relationship with my colleague, I regret that things did not pan out the way we wanted it to. We forget that boundaries are not rigid, but flexible constructs designed by us to make our lives better. In hindsight, I wish I had been more malleable, and that is why I resonate to Kuldeep's introspective piece, Boundaries in a Builder’s World, where he writes about how boundaries are less about our circumstances and more about how we react to them.

And if these five incredible authors are proof, there's no one fixed way to set boundaries. Remember that boundaries are not rules that we need to live our lives by. Question them, mould them, and break them when necessary. 

Happy reading.

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