The ever elusive Happiness....

The pursuit of happiness is indeed a chase of a lifetime. We humans are a dissatisfied lot. We are motivated by goals which we think will lead us to things, both material and non-material, that will pave the way to our happiness. We work deliriously towards it, leaving no stone unturned. We don’t want that feeling that we narrowly missed getting that because we didn’t try a wee bit harder. Hard work coupled with an unfailing approach eventually gets us what we always wanted and prayed for. Now this is where we come to the surprise element. We still aren’t happy! What we got is STILL not enough. The salary is still low, the house still small, the work still not challenging enough. After the initial euphoria, the enthusiasm of enjoying the fruits of our labor wears off. Was all that sweat and pain just for that one moment of ecstasy? What is it that we are looking for and what it is that we really want? To the world we might appear as go-getters. We know what we want and we know how to get it. Nothing succeeds like success. Touché. But the one person we cannot con is ourselves.

Eventually we come to the conclusion that this wasn’t what we were looking for and start working towards another such goal. And life goes on. Till the end of our days we keep at it. What we are chasing is then obviously an illusion. While we can see what lies at the end of the road, that, which is worth pursuing, what we are overlooking is what is with us right through.

It’s said that money can’t buy happiness. Of course it’s obnoxious to say that we don’t need money for survival. Sure we do. There is no such thing as a free lunch these days. True. Point taken. But what is also true is that the best things in life are free. Certain things are just priceless. No amount of money can buy the protective assurance from a loved one which says that even if all goes wrong with the world, they are always there for us and are just a backward glance away. Nothing in the world can diffuse a tense moment like a joke from a friend at hand who can view the lighter side of life and make you feel as ease. Nothing can match the innocence on a child’s face when the world begins to seem like a complex place. The essence is to strike a perfect balance between materialism and all that and who truly matter. What’s the point in a victory when you’ve no one to celebrate it with? Time we make a reality check. “ Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts”.