Friday, May 12, 2006
Happiness is Smile Shaped
I come from a city that goes by the slogan, "Muskuraiye ki aap Lucknow mein hain" (Smile coz you are in Lucknow). To an extent I believe that is true for Lucknow because you have TIME (yah, I mean BIG TIME), with an ambling pace of life in Lucknow you can have the leisure of passing a smile, a very genuine smile.
But I do not live in Lucknow any more; my expressions of happiness have changed to a brief nod for an approval of a humorous incident, it's also not that I was smiling ear to ear in Lucknow (like Ajit Jogi). In the entire hullabaloo that my metro life is, smile is an economic commodity; I'll deal with this later when I talk about Gross National Happiness (GNH). It is also a customary gesture that has to be extended irrespective of your mood. I guess almost everyone has at a point or the other said Hiiii when she / he really means is Bye or Get lost Bugger, lemme live.
A few days back I happened to meet a batch mate from IRMA who had come to Delhi. This lady or my Mom, that was my nick to her, though she is junior to me by some years.
But I do not live in Lucknow any more; my expressions of happiness have changed to a brief nod for an approval of a humorous incident, it's also not that I was smiling ear to ear in Lucknow (like Ajit Jogi). In the entire hullabaloo that my metro life is, smile is an economic commodity; I'll deal with this later when I talk about Gross National Happiness (GNH). It is also a customary gesture that has to be extended irrespective of your mood. I guess almost everyone has at a point or the other said Hiiii when she / he really means is Bye or Get lost Bugger, lemme live.
A few days back I happened to meet a batch mate from IRMA who had come to Delhi. This lady or my Mom, that was my nick to her, though she is junior to me by some years.
Barring a brief discussion over coffee when she came last time to Delhi, I was meeting her formally after almost a year's gap. What followed was a series of discussion over a range of topics till 01:30 in the night.
In a year after graduating from IRMA, I find myself a changed individual. May be because of the job my priorities / ideologies have changed. Something I was expecting to be true on her part too. Vividly recalling her as a person who would smile for free (remember smile is an economic commodity) I had a belief that she might have changed too. To my pleasure she was the same ol' Mom of mine.
By the time it was 02:30 I was taking her to the guesthouse, she had a flight in the morning. I had positioned the rear view mirror on the bike so as to see her. And she is smiling. Anything worth mentioning that moment was that it was clear road and that the breeze was cool. Nothing I felt worth smiling about. But she is smiling, not once or twice but all throughout the way. Maybe there was something in the air, the rhythm of the breeze, the dancing leaves on the trees; I don't know or I never felt this was worth noticing.
Small things you see..... we miss them in our search for the real happiness.
On my way back after dropping her at the guesthouse, I looked back in the same mirror again and again just to witness the same serenity that was she. All I could see around was a dilapidated hoarding, the dust and Delhites rushing for home.
Content is in everything but material and Smile is just an extension of it.....
In a year after graduating from IRMA, I find myself a changed individual. May be because of the job my priorities / ideologies have changed. Something I was expecting to be true on her part too. Vividly recalling her as a person who would smile for free (remember smile is an economic commodity) I had a belief that she might have changed too. To my pleasure she was the same ol' Mom of mine.
By the time it was 02:30 I was taking her to the guesthouse, she had a flight in the morning. I had positioned the rear view mirror on the bike so as to see her. And she is smiling. Anything worth mentioning that moment was that it was clear road and that the breeze was cool. Nothing I felt worth smiling about. But she is smiling, not once or twice but all throughout the way. Maybe there was something in the air, the rhythm of the breeze, the dancing leaves on the trees; I don't know or I never felt this was worth noticing.
Small things you see..... we miss them in our search for the real happiness.
On my way back after dropping her at the guesthouse, I looked back in the same mirror again and again just to witness the same serenity that was she. All I could see around was a dilapidated hoarding, the dust and Delhites rushing for home.
Content is in everything but material and Smile is just an extension of it.....
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