Material Happiness Is Just Another Facet Of Sorrow!

Twas a melancholic Sunday morning. I lay there on my bed, gazing at the webbed ceiling of my hostel room, not wanting to wake up to the reality, not wanting to wake up to a lousy house of lies with muddy falsities and haystacks of misery.
As I tried to shift my focus from the incumbent cobwebs, an array of thoughts streamed into my mind, all boisterous and attention seeking but mostly interrelated with a decision taken by a wise man : My father who quit his job.

My mind works in mysterious but stupid ways. I shouldn't be giving a rat's furry butt if my father quit his job; it wouldn't encumber my well-being or any of my family members' per se, but I being fundamentally me had to over-hype, exaggerate and act as if the rosy world that I lived in had ended.

I envisaged that I had to give up all the luxuries : weekly trips to malls, restaurants, buying whatever-the-heck I wanted without batting an eye at the price tag, plush vacations and of course, the vanity!

While I was lamenting over the loss of ostensity in my life, I heard a cacophonous door knock. Quickly snapping myself back from the oblivious state, I opened the door to have the hostel maid murmuring angrily and cursing someone. She barged in and started cleaning the room and I just sat there gawking at her. I got up once she was done, said “Thank you” and gave an awkward smile. To my surprise, her face suddenly lit up and she said, “ee hostel nalli neev obre nanig thank you heladu.. nimig thank you”. That roughly translates to - “You're the only one in the hostel who thanks me. Thank YOU”.

I had an epiphany; sudden manifestation of human fallibility.

We humans have fabricated notions about the world. Our brains are hardwired into thinking that a world of fancy and living a life of adoration is all one needs to be happy. We tend to dismiss the chunks of happiness that comes from the human interaction thinking of it as a mere gesture of life and we engage ourselves in more “productive” activities. We work day in and day out and even on weekends and public holidays just to keep our families financially secure. But what about emotional security? And love?

When I actually pondered over this topic, my father's decision seemed rational. They came back for me! And the payslip wouldn't amount to the tension, work-pressure and risk.