Thursday, July 3, 2008

hAPPINESS

Happiness
!!
Each one of us has different benchmark to put us into the state of being happy or not! Rightly said “its more or less jus the change in u”.
Donnow y I m defining this term here n y I have chosen this term as my topic but the first thing tht comes to my mind every time I think about the incident m going to share in this blog is HAPPINESS.
Recently, been to Mumbai for my summer training...experience was awesome not just in terms of what I learnt professionally but also in terms of how I grew personally.

Learnt how to travel by bus n local trains!
Might sound very trivial but trust me its NOT. I am not just talking about the physical exhaustion traveling takes but also the psychological one. It’s difficult to accept u don care for Ur status. May be m still a student and may be I cant even afford now to own a car of mine but still I don mind showing people how filthy rich I m and what all luxuries I can afford(obviously dad’s gonna pay)..
Anyway citing the experience …wen I started of with my training it was relie difficult and embarrassing for me to everyday board a bus and travel for one and a half hour of agonizing and unbearable journey to IIT campus from BARC...I thought its better to take an auto and pay may be ten times more!!Atleast convenience is der (lemme confess it the time gap is hardly fifteen min for both of dem)...Whatever wen u see all the SUVs and luxury cars being driven by SMART and GUD LOOKING people of ur age from the small window of Ur bus u ought to feel that way (at least tht will suffice ur mental exhaustion assuring that dude! U too can afford tht)… but still I continued with BUS..!(Donnow y!) Two weeks went by with the same altercation going on in my mind between my status and the status of the people I was traveling with (no offence intended.. Thts the truth!!)
But den one day while my ORDEAL (yea this is what I considered it) one family boarded the bus...Mom, pop and two lil children ( 2-4 yrs)..Nothings different for me. I still appreciated the black BMW I saw rolling past before me from my window..
The family made themselves comfortable. Two kids on one seat before mine. And the mommy sitting next to dem instructing not to take der hands out and all! The daddy was busy paying ticket fares...Whtevr EVERTHINGS still the same for me. But then gradually I noticed something. Those kids were enjoying themselves thoroughly. Was a bit surprising for me... (I mean how can anyone enjoy bus ride...Tht too without an AC and gud music)...And the parents were overwhelmed to see der kids happy. Can such mode of transportation could be anybody’s reason to be happy? Mommy was busy telling her kids how huge that building is and how fast that car is running &. Daddy looked so swollen with pride to make his kids HAPPY.
I was amazed and was kind of feeling pity for myself (relie I was!). Something that means so much of fun and bliss for someone is a source of an ORDEAL for me..!Is my benchmark for happiness so high to be reached..?Y m I not so happy as they are... What is so different for them..
I could only think of one answer that may be sometimes big flamboyant things in life take away the austerity of every things else. Stature lies in Ur head and may be not completely in your flamboyant flashy lifestyle u carry with your money!!
After four weeks of bus I den switched to local trains for a new lesson of HAPPINESS!!(J)..But i still DON mind driving a car of my own(:))

14 comments:

Unknown said...

amazing man....u've really had an experience!!
way to go man!

Tanuj Solanki said...

status is a farce...shun it!!!

kirti agarwal said...

thanku for ur comment!
its not tht easy to go away frm it or shun it..
wen ppl lack confidence dey try to make der presence felt by flaunting the extravagant lifestyle they can afford..which has been mistaken as status..i guess!

Lalith said...

Judging from your post, I'd say you're a spoilt brat!!! But then again, the fact that you were touched by the sheer simplicity of the family that you ran into shows that there's still some hope for you yet. Lets hope you change :)

Cheers!

Unknown said...

luvly read.. .u certainly have started liking philosophy i think, as u said once :).. i guess, all of us are selfish.. and all of us try to make the best of watever we have got.. even that family u saw in the bus wud luv to own a car one day.. n the kids who are enjoying so much now, as they grow up, they might also start feeling the same way as u did.. they wud also look from the window of the bus at the BMW, and wud dream of driving it one day (and feel that momentary unhappiness).. n the BMW owner wud look at a cruise or a chartered plane and dream of getting it one day.. i guess, all of us grow up dat way... we bloody humans.. ;)
and i dnt think that we lack confidence and flaunt the extravagance... its just the social circle we live in.. lets be practicle, if u have it, u ought to flaunt it.. however arrogant it might sound... and along wid living the lavish life-style, one can still contribute to the needy and poor, just by some social work.. and there are many avenues for that.. n if u are a spoilt brat, then enjoy being spoilt.. :) .. but also keep your sensitivities alive, like u did in the bus case...

kirti agarwal said...

hi vaibhav!
nice to hear frm u..i guess tht greed is the one of the imp.reason tht drives this wrld..n its indespensible fer the development of humans..but i'll stick wid my notion or belief that flauntin status is one of the way to compliment one's confidence..n i luv been calld as a spoil brat..!('ve already taken as a compliment:))

Unknown said...

hi..maybe u r right.. but i think that once you have achieved certain so called "success", n u have reached a confidence level becos of that, then you won't feel the need to flaunt style.. i can see some close and gud friends of mine, who have achieved the best of things professionally.. these kinda guys simply dont care abt flaunting style.. at times i find myself wandering in a 'high-fi mall' in my bedroom slippers... and i have realised that i m pretty comfy wid it.. cos within me, i have this feeling that even if i m in my bedroom slippers, dirty jeans, n the most ordinary of t-shirts, my status is much higher than many many who are in the best of clothes, accessories, n gadgets... at times i feel that i have become v v arrogant, bordering on a superiority complex (though i certainly and truly believe that i m not superior to neone).. but this is the way it is.. so its not flaunting style to complement confidence.. but i guess it may be flaunting attitude which arises due to an already well settled confidence.. n believe me, maybe some years down the line u also start feeling the same way.. :).. but yeah, as u said, till dat time, flaunting status might be one of the way to compliment one's confidence.. this is the submission of one brat to another.. :))

amit said...

amzing experience di............

Dewank said...

Liked the way u wrote ur experience... spclly that reference of that family n the way u described thm to b happy..but really in dis world of today, that altercation btween our status n that of sm odr ppl realy emerges from nowhr.
Happiness defutes different meaning for diffrent individuals, but that u later on switched on to locals for a new lesson was gr8 on ur part, u must hav lrnt smthing new n had an experience of a lifetym..odrwse flaunting lifestyl is a compliment to one's confidence( just as u said).. good work... way to go.!!!

iam24 said...

I sincerely think happiness has hardly got anything 2 do with status....may be when u were in that shabby bus a BMW was the most `upmarket` machine for u ...just the same way it would have been a BOEING if u were in a BMW...n HAPPINES!!it isnt that easily achievble as u made it looked in ur blog..it can easily take u under deceit...that family mite have appeared happy apparently 2 u but who knows what might be goin insyd them??

kirti agarwal said...

hi Alex!
thanku fer ur comment!
may be u r rite ..i mite not completely know wht happiness really mean,but somewhere i think appreciating small things in life constitutre a part of it..n thts wht i learnt frm dem..ders no dearth of desires in ones life n tht family is no different frm rest of us..materialistic possessions can only complement ones well being . perhaps, happiness lies in appreciating wht u hv and believing tht ders more to achieve!

Unknown said...

i think you should watch `into the wild`..a recent hollywood flick..ur ambivalance bout happiness may get an answer out of it..at least for me it did...
would like 2 paraphrase a line frm Dr.zhivago
"happiness is real when shared"

Unknown said...

Whoa!!!That is some serious food for thought.Never thought you had a panache for writing too.But then you were always like that.Ain't u...Rising from the ashes..phoneix types:-)lol..dramatic ho gaya..
i still remember your journey from a nobody in 8th standard to a geek/nerd and then the smart,intelligent girl you have become..
The post was really touchy..Will wait for more posts like that,though i don't wish you experience such ordeals:-)

Unknown said...

Hey,
First let me compliment you for the blog.Is a good read I think...But I guess I would agree with Tanuj here bout STATUS(an immensely misunderstood term)...besides, travelling in Mumbai is a whole lot convenient by locals and buses..lols..