Being happy is fun and rather simple!

Being happy is the most beautiful virtue in life. Howsoever, beautiful it might seem it isn’t that easy to attain true happiness. At times we find it too tough to accept and on others we are just too afraid to be a part of the change that is needed to attain that illusive bout of happiness.

But what is true happiness or the rather enigmatic art of being happy? Is it always about weighing things in terms of its monetary value or the materialistic pleasure it provides? On most occasions, YES! Who wouldn’t love buying a fancy pair of shades or an expensive jacket and flaunting it all around in anticipation of few compliments. Those really are some happy moments. But these are not the only occasions that provide you true happiness, in other words  you don’t have to lean on the materialistic and expensive modes to derives true happiness in life. Howsoever, bookish, saintly and preachy it might sound everybody can relate to it in their lives in some form or the other. I did so too very recently and was rather ecstatic with the experience.

I was in Pune last week staying with one of my very close friends, by the grace of the god both of us doing reasonably well to treat each other with a sumptuous fancy meal in any of the top most restaurants in the city. What we instead planned and executed was a trip down to one of the not so famous street side joints to relish a portion of authentic  Maharashtrian ‘Misal Pav’ delicacy. And we were so delighted, satiated and happy post that session that we are still thanking each other for that plan and still raving on the happiness that brought to both of us. I seriously doubt whether that fancy lunch in an upmarket restaurant would have had such a long lasting ‘happy’ impact on two of us.

Similarly, couple of days later when I walked down the stairs from my Nani’s apartment, I saw couple of teenagers (may be 15- 16 years old) playing cricket in the society campus. I stood there for a while watching them play, remembering my own teenage days where I used to do the same for hours with my friends and cousins. I was a bit hesitant in asking those kids about that favor but that sense of nostalgia urged me to request those guys to let me play an over or two with them, my teenage experience helped me do it in a rather friendly way. I requested them for an over with the bat and also with the ball, only in an attempt to not seem like that grumpy and irritating uncle who is only keen on batting and pushing away thereafter. In the hindsight, I am happy I shed past my hesitation and indulged in those 10 minutes of ‘surreal gali cricket experience’. It indeed was a happy moment and the one that will keep me happy for a some time.

And there are many such priceless and happy moments waiting to be explored but we resist, fearing the change that they would bring in with them. For instance, I am a big foodie (chatora, as the true connoisseurs of street side food might call) and I find it very hard to resist the temptation of feasting on anything supposedly unhealthy or junk and if you are a fitness freak as well and keep a tab on your calorie intake than it’s a real nightmare to strike a balance in this. But the real happiness is in binging on those extra samosas and kachoris without worrying about the unwanted calories and in true sense once you actually gulp them in, the pleasure that you experience from it is surreal J.

The same happy moment realization happens when you laze around with your best friends over a grand slam tennis match or a high voltage Cricket clash. Or for that matter when you park aside your four wheeler and take on the streets on a two wheeler. Happiness is in skipping an important office meeting to get on a useless discussion with your close pal. And in letting go an age old grudge with your once best friend and in many such small things that are so priceless that you can only understand by experiencing them.

After all being happy is everyone’s personal choice, only if we can learn to not attach a very heavy price tag to attain happiness.

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