Turn Right For Happiness
TURN RIGHT FOR HAPPINESS
His name was Rajesh, or Prakash, or Bhuvan, or something else. I never asked him. Nobody does I thought.
He stood at the window holding some toy motorcycles, coaxing me to buy one. The rational being within me thought for a while (not more than a couple of milliseconds actually); there was nobody young enough to play with that plastic toy at home, moreover babies of all cousins and friends were too young to play with it. The decision was thus made, and even more hastily conveyed with just a quick sideway nod and as little eye-contact as possible. He lingered for a while hoping my decision would change, but then walked back to the footpath.
The emotional being within me now entered the scene, and brought along some guilt, some curiosity and a mix of some of these and other emotions. I now thought about how I would have probably helped the poor chap by buying the toy for the sake of just buying. Probably I could have helped spread a smile on his face smeared with the dust and smoke sticking on to the sweaty skin on the hot afternoon. I expected him to be sad, to feel dejected, hopeless about this miserable life of a pauper on the cruel street.
What I saw next however was difficult to fathom entirely for either the rational or the emotional being within me. The homeless kid was actually laughing with another little girl which I assumed to be his little sister. He pulled out a ten rupee note and was boasting about and dancing. She laughed back in return and showed him a packet of chips (which I thought was half empty from the way she shook it, but which was more than half full from the way she had a smile on her face).
The traffic lights turned green and the sound of the cars and bikes honking behind me forced me to move ahead.
How could those kids manage to smile and be happy?
What exactly about their lives allows them to experience one of the most basic human emotions, which so called well-to-do elite members of the society have to strive to experience?
Where do they find their happiness?
Probably they have found the road map to happiness. Happiness is just around the corner, waiting to be explored. We just need to take the right route; the route that leads to our inner selves; as happiness lies within, not outside. It is a product of our thoughts, perceptions and attitudes; not a medication to heal wounds that can be bought across the counter.
For the kids on the street that day, the money or food did not make them happy; it was how they looked at them that made them smile.
Ironically we all have heard about this sometime or the other, but we get so entangled in trying to know and understand the world, which we forget the route that helps us know and understand ourselves. At times like this, somebody may extend a helping hand to assist us in finding ourselves, better and sooner. All we need to do is take the first step, and seek their assistance.
We are there @www.throughyourthoughts.com
Dr. Sairaj M. Patki