Happiness is within!

Well we often discuss about what makes us happy! But have you ever thought what exactly happiness is? Yes Happiness as they say is a state of mind where you are contented from within, you believe you are on the top of the world, you see everyone and everything  with a positive view, you know that things are absolutely under your control, the way you desire it. You wish to keep this moment standstill, retain it under your palms. The meaning of happiness actually differs for different people, the simple reason being everyone is not alike. What matters to you may not matter to me and vice versa! Yeah howsoever weird it may sound but that’s a fact.

For a one year old toddler happiness is seeing mom, for a 3 year old happiness is savouring a chocolate bar, for a five year old it’s having fun with other kids, for a 7 year old its visit to amusement park, for a ten year old happiness is surfing the net and playing online games, for a fifteen year old its hanging out with friends. As the kid grows up and moves to a college again the definition for happiness changes then its making new friends, enjoying chatting with them, following the latest fashion trends, being mischievous and pulling each other’s leg.

After one is done with the education, then comes the next target of acquiring a good lucrative job. When one achieves the dream job it’s yet another milestone reached and a reason for triumph. Then comes the next phase in life, marital bliss. This is the beautiful phase wherein you want to share your life with someone you love, with someone whom you connect and are compatible with. After marriage kids follow which bring joy, love and teach one the meaning of unbiased and unconditional love! We once again become kids in the company of our own kids.. What an eternal feeling it is.

But in all this have you ever noticed that we are constantly worrying and doubting ourselves if as to whether we will be in a position to accomplish our dreams? We know what we want, we know how to achieve it then why does the fear keep lurking us. One has to learn to be confident and have complete self –faith in the journey called life where you are always on your toes to reach your destination. With hard work accompanied with sincerity one has to hold a strong determination in the mind. In our gist of achieving the bigger milestone we often forget the small joys that life has to offer. For example, when we are working hard towards cracking an exam while we are constantly focussing on the end result we conveniently ignore the internal exam results where we would have excelled our past records. Why can’t we celebrate this mid-term results? This celebration can push us forward to achieve a higher goal. Likewise we can easily disintegrate our ultimate milestone into smaller ones, celebrate whenever we have achieved satisfactorily. We should basically try to celebrate our journey towards success rather than merely celebrating the end result. Have a close look at the baby who has just started walking on its own. It doesn’t learn to walk overnight, it first learns to crawl then sit, then takes support of something to stand and finally gains balance and confidence to stand on its own feet without any support. Every time the kid learns a new thing it has a sense of contentment and is overjoyed by its own effort, as adults we are so lost in our maturity that we have forgotten to celebrate small joys in our life.

Who doesn’t want to be successful in life? However people have actually started determining their source of happiness with the success you achieve. Success can be one of the reasons for our happiness but don’t let it be the only reason. Life is full of diversity, if you are not an expert in one thing you can always opt for something else that interests you rather than sulking over the spilled milk.

Detoxification of your system from within is necessary, expunge all the negative traits like jealousy, envy, fear and guilt. These negative things go a long way to hamper your growth as a person and ultimately affect your happy space.

Staying in the company of positive people is important for they are the one that always encourage you and cheer you come what may! They are the driving force of life, they make you feel important and spread an aura of optimism. 

Be exuberant and have zeal for life!Stop worrying over trivial things, soak in the happiness and celebrate life!

No Honking

The other day on Raksha bandhan I was travelling to town by road. One thing which immediately caught my attention was the huge banners put up by Times of India related to No honking Drive

 (15^th-22 Aug 2016).

What an excellent initiative taken up by TOI to create awareness amongst the people on how hazardous unnecessary honking is. In metro cities like Mumbai especially where the city never sleeps it is extremely important to understand that unnecessary honking should be completely avoided. It not only damages hearing it also leads to anxiety, stress, road rage and hypertension. It actually breaks the silence. The journey from suburb to town which normally takes an hour took us 3 hours with incessant honking which further added to our plight. As we moved inch by inch towards our destination trying to trace the source of the traffic jam but could not find any on our way. Just 4-5 cars which had broken down in the middle of the traffic due to excess heating.

Abroad the scene is totally different there honking is treated as rude. If you honk people stare you with a look which says” My driving is perfect man don’t honk”. There are certain countries which take action against honking, it’s high time that we too follow them and make laws around no honking to deter honking.

Noise pollution is also one of the serious hazard for the environment it disturbs the plant and animal life. As per Awaaz foundation the normal decibel levels should be 55 DB, however they shoot up to 110 DB-140 DB during festivals. By creating awareness through schools and colleges we can sensitise the kids on noise pollution.. this in fact has proved to be an effective tool. The results are showing up, last couple of years there has been reduction in the sale of fire crackers especially sutali bombs which merely burst & penetrate your ears leave you temporarily shaken, they damage the ear organ. Not to forget the air pollution created by the fumes arising out of these fire crackers. Last year my cousin took his kids out for fire cracker shopping when the kids themselves objected to buy these noise polluting fire cracker as they were taught at the school about the hazards of noise pollution.

Some people actually move out of their place and travel off to some far off place during Diwali to avoid the air and noise pollution. During festivals and wedding people play loud music thereby disturbing all around, such occasion are happy and joyful events in ones’s life and shouldn’t be a reason for inconvenience to others. People will have to realise that they have to think about others and environment and maintain civic sense. I recollect this particular instance when fire caught our building on Diwali night due to bursting of fire cracker, we were fortunate enough that we were successful in dousing the flames on time!

Let us all pledge that we will not attribute to noise or air pollution and spread awareness so as to make the earth a better place to live in. 

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Stop taking Pictures ..(stop being unreasonable)

Dear Respected Jaya Bacchan,

With regard to your valuable advise of Stop taking pictures to the students of Narsee Monjee’s annual festival who on seeing you immediately took out their mobile phones and went  click..click..click. Whilst you did get furious and categorically asked the students to stop taking the pictures..kindly note that they were doing what any other individual would have done had he or she been in their place. They were completely awestruck seeing a well-known celebrity who was there to have a chat session with the students. On seeing her raging and furious whereby she mentioned that just because you have a camera and mobile you have the freedom of taking anyone’s picture anytime without seeking their permission. The students got so remorseful that there prevailed pin drop silence in the hall.

Who is  to be blamed in this situation is not the students jayaji , but our very own system which idolises the bollywood hero and heroines to such an extent that they think of them as their real hero and some further go to the extent to literally construct temples in their names and worship them. With the advance in technology , inbuilt camera clicking pictures and videos has become so very easy. These very celebrities are publicity hungry they want their fans to give them the much needed adulation and admiration. What is the fuss about??

Next time you address a similar audience please be cordial and request the organisers itself to make an announcement at the beginning of the function restricting mobile usage..may be such pictures can be taken at the end of the programme.

What irks me is that very jayaji who went for launch of Dilip De’s digital art exhibition has no issues posing for the paparazzi. Depending on the location, people and place how easily the celebrity change their stance.