HAPPINESS... YOU'RE SO NEAR, YET SO FAR





















“A smile is happiness you'll find right under your nose.”

- Tom Wilson




We miss simple joy of living – call it happiness – when we plan too much. Really, Life is what happens to us while we are busy making our ‘other plans’…

For some days now, my wife and I have been ‘planning’ for a short vacation, this summer. We were checking on the Net, talking to our friends and, still, have not been able to take a decision. “Just pack up and go,” a friend of mine told me, “You shouldn’t plan too much.”

A week has already gone by, meanwhile!



I was to attend an important meeting at Fort area, this noon. It was a scheduled for today more than a month ago and a great deal of planning and preparation had gone into it. I was a bit tensed this morning, and had kept the rest of my work on hold. Around 11.30, I was on my way to the meeting venue… I received a call saying that the meeting was postponed. I couldn’t believe it… and, decided to continue going. It was a good thing to happen… I could see my tension dissolving into calmness… Once I reached near the venue, I decided to come home. I called my wife and briefed her about the cancellation of the meeting.

“Good, you come home,” she said.

By 12.30, I was home…

It was extremely hot outside. Once, I reached home, I took a cold-water shower… and ate the simplest and the lightest of meals: a small bowl of rice with curd, papad, and a glass of buttermilk! It felt kingly!!!

Our conversation at home, too, was one of the simplest and the lightest… absolutely mature and warm… There wasn’t even a tinge of sarcasm, criticism: Why, what, when, who, how come and so on… There was no expectation from each other: You do this , I do this… There was no past and no future: What was there was all that was there… A good nap followed, just like that… all unplanned… Eyes wanted to close, they did!

When eyes opened, it was 5. My wife had prepared a lovely evening snack: Maggie with spinach… The tea tasted divine!

There was no agenda at all… Some beautiful old-songs kept coming, and they perfectly suited the ambiance… None of them came as per any plan… They just came, and my heart just rejoiced…







It’s 7 now… It’s dark outside. Wife wanted to have some fresh breeze and chat with her colony friends… I wanted to write this Post…


'Is it not a vacation’? I smile in my heart. ‘If simple joy and love can come this way, too, why don’t we go for more vacations like this one?’ Yes, I am really smiling in my heart!

Happiness… You’re so near, yet so far!



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Rashmi Sondhi

 Video: YouTube


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