Saturday, November 17, 2007

The Cost Of Happiness

May 2005, Scene - College Atrium near the Utilities Shop. Me and a group of friends killing time like you always do in colleges.


What were we doing? Nothing specific, just chatting and sipping cola (or was it a juice?), in that usual hustle and bustle of college I happened to notice a small young girl of maybe 5-6 years of age covered in a bedsheet, perhaps one of the numerous children of the construction workers working at our college, scavenging the garbage bin of the Utilities shop for some eatable.

Suddenly she was warded off rudely by the shopkeeper, terrified, she ran away. Ideally I wouldn't have bothered to do anything about it, it was all so normal to see, this happens everywhere. But that day I moved, I could sense that the child wished to have something nice to eat, my friends stopped and stared at me because I left the conversation in the middle. I went to the shop bought 4 rupees worth of eclairs, and ran after that child. The girl had reached the water cooler and was quenching her thirst, seeing me run towards her she stopped drinking and was about to run. Perhaps she thought that like the shopkeeper I was going to scold her for drinking water in the Academic Block, I asked her to stop and opened my hands to reveal the Eclairs. She was reluctant to take them, but I persuaded her to take them all. In return to this favor I got a big smile from her, and then she ran away. It made me feel good from within and the happy feeling lingered on for sometime. It all costed me just four rupees to make her smile and feel happy.

Perhaps that is all happiness costs us - the desire to do something, not with pity but, with care.

When was the last time you felt happy doing something?



5 comments:

Anupama said...

A bare truth uncovered - we don't mind spending thousands for vanity while buying clothes or eating out...do we ever think about what a few Rupees might mean to someone else who is less fortunate? Sometimes the simplest things evade notice because they are right there in front of us even as we search for so-called 'higher-truths'...a very good post...congratulations and keep blending!

gypsy said...

one small incident, they say holds the power to change ur life...

good one!!!

WritingsForLife said...

beautiful post!! Thumbs up to you. Too often we forget the little things in life and never feel the true happiness.

xunz said...

Great work (Y)!!!
This little act of kindness will leave an everlasting impression on the girl and she'll do the same when she'll grow up... keep up the good work =)

Rushabhh Gandhi said...

Thats where we are lacking behind dude......just a small act of yours gave you a smile in return but it gave her a few minutes of pleasantness around her...Thank you for creating that....
We all need to do the similiar things..small acts of kindness change things around us can also help in changing the attitude of our country, our india....