Our Tryst to Pursue & Taming Happiness

Do you know the reason behind usage of the term “Pursuit to Happiness”? Because we have to continuously pursue happiness. We can never have a perennial source of happiness. We have to wake up everyday to work our ass off, so that we can reach closer and closer to few happy moments or things that might lead us to the Pandora box where Happiness comfortably rests. Basically, we have some predefined notions about happiness and methods to derive it, which might be incomplete or flawed.  Depending upon experiences & presumptions, we create personalized sources through which happiness can be achieved. Let’s accept a fact: Each one of us pursues happiness in our own way because its source tends to vary. Some people derive happiness from a relatively trivial thing (in the opinion of others), while there are others individuals who might be happy after they are the richest person in their society. 

“Can happiness be tamed?” “Are their levels for happiness and if there are levels, then how do we exactly know how happy we are in a particular situation?” “Can we manipulate our feelings to derive happiness?” These questions started hovering over my head during my early graduation days. Sadly, they did more harm than good. I was left muddled about the theory of happiness for many years to come. The more I read about happiness from random sources, the farther I went from achieving a happy state of mind. There were days when I wasn’t sure whether I was happy or my reaction in a particular situation was just a farcical reaction by my subconscious to please others. 

 

Dale Carnegie, the legendary writer & motivational speaker, made a famous statement on happiness, “Remember, happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think.” Last year, I happened to read some works of Dale Carnegie who has written a lot about using our thoughts to be happy. Interesting. His works opened the floodgates of my mind and I actually started believing that using this technique happiness can be tamed. You can be happy whenever you want to. It’s just that you’ve to think that you’re happy. Isn’t that so simple? But, if it’s that so simple, then why are many people across the world unhappy. We will talk about this question and a few more grave ones in my next blog that would be here soon. 

 

Huxley vs. Orwell: The Webcomic

What Orwell feared the most eventually became reality.

Biblioklept

Stuart McMillen’s webcomic adapts (and updates) Postman’s famous book-length essay, Amusing Ourselves to Death, which argues that Aldous Huxley’s vision of the future in Brave New World was ultimately more accurate than the one proposed by George Orwell in 1984. (Via).

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Jhuthe Pyaar Se Accha Sachi Nafrat hi kar li hoti Tumne

Is tutey dil ko kaise jodein hum

Jab nafrat hi karni thi toh pyaar kyun kiya

Jab zulm hi dhane the toh aitbaar kyun kiya

Keh diya hota Usi samay humase

Ke nahi hai mohabbat Hamein tumse……….

….

Jab dil hi nahi tha dene ke liye

Toh tumhe fursat mili kaise pyaar ke liye

Jhuthe pyaar se accha Sachi Nafrat hi kar li hoti tumne

Dil mein tumhare kitni Nafrat hai dikha di hoti tumne

……..

Bus itna Keh diya hota tumne mujhe……

Pyaar koi khel nahi aur hum dono ka koi mail nahi

Hum apne dil ko pathar bana lete

Kisi tarah usey behla fusla kar mana lete……..

…..
Chot jab ab abhi lagi hai toh Zakhm bhi rehengey

Dard hua hai toh aansu bhi bahengey

Aur jaise-2 yeh Khoon ke aanshu beh rehein hai

waise-2 mere dil ke armaan simat rahein hai……

….

Magar ye mat sochna ki hum bhi tumse nafrat karengey

kyonki Jabtak jiyengey tumse bas pyaar hi karengey

Khoon ke aansu toh bahana aa gaya hai hamein

Ab bas tumhare bina kaise jeena hai yeh Seekhna hai hamein………………

 

The Jog that was never to be…..

As I woke up at the morning, something was amiss. I could feel it but i went ahead with my daily routine. Within next half an hour, I was ready for the morning jog. As I was about to leave for the jog, at one point of time I thought to just give a glance to the clock but I hurriedly avoided it and moved out of the house after latching the gate from outside. Minutes after leaving the house, I was on the middle of the main road, where I jog regularly. A milkman was busy doing what he is best at ” mixing water in the milk”. We both gave each other a rather weird look. I was actually muddled seeing his reaction after he noticed me. I am used to stares but this was a rather odd one.

After completing two rounds of the road, I increased my speed and started running at very fast pace. Every step brought lots of noise but i wasn’t bothered what was happening, as for me the main concern was my speed. Cars and vehicles passing on the road were slowing down just to see me. I could not guess the question marks on their faces, so all I could do was, jog. By this time, it was certain that something was wrong and it had to do with me. Stupidity has no limits and I am always determined to prove it right. Despite all these happenings I did not even think once why that milkman was staring me or why people passing from the road slowed down their vehicles. I changed the location and began running on a different road, which was rather new to me. Tired of jogging, I sat on the divider and just waited for the sun rise, as I do regularly. After waiting for a while, boredom grappled me, so I decided to rather go home and rest than sit on the divider.

I reached home in probably ten minutes and rung the bell twice, my routine. Mother opened the gate and seeing her face I could sense sky was about to fall on me, but why? She dragged me into the house and the first thing which she spoke after continuous angry staring  was WHAT I WAS DOING OUT OF THE HOUSE AT 5 AM IN THE MORNING? I did not utter a word, just turned my head towards the clock and to my horror it was 4 am. I rubbed my eyes, I could not believe that i had gone for the jog at 4 am in the morning and came back at 5. What followed was taunts and mockery from the entire family but I underwent all this because I am confident that I will beat this stupidity too…

I am still trying to recover from the shock and analyzing how all this happened.

This is a fictional story, which came to my mind when i woke up today for the jog at the same time but realized that i was too early for the jog and did not go ahead with it.