Happiness is a choice. Our choice, irrespective of what circumstances we are in. If we choose to be happy, we will be. The photograph below (which has gone viral on the internet), of the kids seemingly taking a selfie, bears testimony to this point.
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Happiness Is A Choice
(Photograph of the kids sourced from Boman Irani's twitter account) |
The other day while I was busy watering and tending my plants in my garden, all of a sudden I felt something fleecy touching my skin. Taken by surprise, as I turned around immediately, to my amazement, I found a cute puppy sitting behind me. His inquisitive eyes were literally glued to the rose plant that I was tending to. He looked so adorable, like a fur ball, that anyone would have been tempted to pick him up into arms and cuddle him, he had innocence written all over his face. I couldn't resist myself and picked him up. But even as I was wondering how he had got into our garden, just then his mother, Lucy, appeared before me, with her other puppies following her. I understood the puppy was hers. Lucy is a street dog who lives in our colony and I could read in her eyes that she wanted to take her son back. Lucy and I have been familiar with each other since a year and she had recognized me as well but then which mother isn't protective about her child? So I put the puppy down for his mother to guide him away to the adjacent lane. And I could see the little puppies playing among themselves in the sand while Lucy lied down there watching over them. Seeing the happy, contented family playing together, I couldn't help but smile.
Sometimes you don't really need grand things to fill your heart with joy, you find happiness in the simplest of things.
Like when I get a ring (phone call) from my parents the first thing in the morning every single day and we talk and share our day's plans and also every little and big thing that would have happened on the previous day. I can't imagine a better start to my day. Happiness is family. Nothing can bring contentment to life other than love from your family members.
I feel happy when Browny and Moti (my street dog-friends whom I feed) greet me excitedly wagging their tails and licking my hands the moment they see me during the evenings, even if I would have been late with their dinner. I feel equally happy to find that with each passing day, Chiku (a cute little squirrel with whom I have, kind of, struck a friendship) is slowly starting to place his trust in me. Every day early morning at around 5:10 AM or thereabouts, Chiku would come and sit on the window sill of my kitchen. I had noticed this while washing the utensils. He would come and lay there, half asleep, probably enjoying the morning breeze. Since last few weeks, I started placing peanuts (moongfalli) on the window sill for him every day. Now he regularly comes around that time and gleefully eats them. He doesn't run away even when I go closer to him. My furry friends are definitely constant sources of happiness for me and as my bonding with them keeps on growing stronger, I have every reason to be happy.
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| My Squirrel Friend Chiku |
I have also always loved being around children. Their presence always leaves me feeling delightfully uplifted, not just for their innocence but also by their spontaneity and energy, their yearning to learn and by their full-bodied, unpretentious laugh. Their laughter and joy is so contagious! They never fail to amaze me with their imaginative and uninhibited perspective. Watching them play and exploring the world with an open mind and freshness fascinates me and consequently also makes me to view the world somewhat differently. This may seem somewhat weird but while I would be on my way to the office, whenever I catch the sight of kids going to school -- small kids entering their school premises waving byes to their mummys and papas --, for some reason, I feel very happy. May be because they remind me of my childhood. There are also days when I happen to see them at their "innocence-best" -- coming out ecstatically after their school hours, running straight to their waiting parents and animatedly sharing every little happening with them, all that would have gone by that day at school, more so on their exam days.
Simplicity has always fascinated me. Nothing makes me more happy than when I get to visit the interior parts of Odisha, the villages. The pristine nature that one gets to see there, the greenery of the rice fields, the coconut trees lined up across the path, the peaceful life of the villagers, their unpretentious, uncorrupt and innocent smiles, their genuine affection with which they serve food to their guests - even a bowl of pakhala served with bhendi poda jhola and baigan bharta taste divine, their taste so sublime that not even a high-end restaurant in a metro city would be able to match it.
There are still so many other simple things that make me happy no end, like when I visit Bhubaneswar (my native place) and mummy feeds me with her hand in spite of my years (in any case, I will never be too old to eat from her hands). Or when she prepares for me all of my favourite dishes with so much of love - Alu posta, Luchi, Buta alu tarkari, Kheer or Ghee-seasoned dalma with grated coconut served along with arua bhata, alu bharta and koshala saaga and so much more. They all taste heavenly, more so when I eat them from her hand like a small kid. Or when she wraps me with her loving arms while sleeping and I get to snuggle up to her and she covers me with her anchal -- one can't get a more peaceful sleep
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I love colours, anything that is colourful absorbs my interest and makes me happy. Be the various shades of colour prints on mummy's sarees or the colourful dupattas that girls wear, colourful bags, colourful vases, a bunch of colourful flowers or rangolis done at the entrance with flower petals and colour powders - I love them all. Although I am not very good with it but still, I have tried to make rangoli art a few times during Deepavali.
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| Rangoli that I made last Diwali |
I love rainfall. The joy and the sort of contentment that it brings to my heart, I can't put it in words. There is something very comforting about the rain - be it the gentle pitter-patter sound of the raindrops falling against the window or the singing of a cuckoo during a drizzle or the pleasant earthy smell after a spell of rain. I could happily sit all day long by the window and watch raindrops fall from the sky. Apart from munching on hot Pakudis or Baiginis, what I also love doing during rainfall is to make paper boats and watch them sail in the rain water.
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| Sailing paper boats during rainy season |
There are several other significant 'Nothings' that give me joy, that make me extremely happy - like I love looking at faces of people in the dark inside the cinema hall. Similarly I love dipping my hands inside a rack of rice grains or pulses. When I see a pond or some water body, I love throwing stones in a slanting motion so that the stones would rebound and somehow dance on the water's surface. I love watching through the window while travelling in a train. I love pressing and breaking the plastic bubble wrap packets and I love the sound when they break. And I still love to eat these lozenge candies. I have so many fond memories of childhood associated with them, they used to be every child's favourite back in the 90s.
Happiness is also when I manage to find a vacant seat in the public transport (bus or Metro) during the rush hour or when the vegetable seller gives me some coriander leaves and green chillies for free
or when I get to dance uninhibitedly at some marriage procession party (baraat).
Of course happiness is very subjective and probably we all have our own interpretations and definitions of happiness. What makes me happy may not necessarily make someone else happy as much. There is no foolproof formula either to attain happiness. But even then, I believe, sometimes we stretch ourselves too far or spread ourselves too thin, while searching around for happiness. In reality however, it's the simple little things that give us the grandest joys in life. True happiness can often be found in the simplest of moments. But we often fail to notice them or appreciate them for the richness and texture they bring to our lives, because we remain busy looking for something majestic.
