Opinion | Columnists
On finding the silver lining behind every dark cloud
The other day, I took my car for an automated wash. Like a child, I've always savoured the glee of going through that experience and always insist on sitting inside during the wash.
- By Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary, Staff Writer
- Published: 00:00 May 16, 2007
- Image Credit: Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
The other day, I took my car for an automated wash. Like a child, I've always savoured the glee of going through that experience and always insist on sitting inside during the wash.
Giant brushes, scrubbing the exterior, lathering it with soap and then those jets of water. It's a lovely feeling to be sitting completely dry, watching water splish sploshing on the windscreen. It's like being under a waterfall without having to wet a single hair.
I emerged from the experience not just with a squeaky clean car, but also a huge smile which refused to go away for a long time.
I don't think I remember smiling like this even when I bought the first diamond set of my life, an exquisitely crafted masterpiece that I put away in the safe deposit and completely forgot about.
Is it really silly of me to feel happy experiencing an auto car wash, or walking barefoot on dewy grass or hearing the pop sound of the corn on the pan at home?
Apparently what I suspected all along is at least a major theory being propounded today that happiness is not a cheque you can encash at a bank.
Professor Richard Layard of the London School of Economics in his recent treatise on happiness says that countries that have been in the top slot for increasing GDPs have witnessed a fall in the general level of happiness in their people and calls this the paradox of our lives.
He says people want more money but as societies have got richer, they haven't got any happier.
That brought me to an old story my father often told me about how the premature death of his father had plunged the family into a financial crisis. He often narrates tales of his poverty ridden childhood when many times they had no idea where or when the next meal would come from.
It was a week before Diwali and the family of four siblings and my widowed grandmother were once again facing yet another bleak week with no money and no food.
But the eternal optimist that my grandmother was, she climbed up to the attic to look for some old stuff she could sell or mortgage to buy supplies for home.
As she rummaged through tin trunks, she came across a passbook for a forgotten account in the post office that was at least a decade old.
She looked at the faint entry in the "credit" section and found to her joy that there was a grand amount of Rs1.50 in that account. Now who would actually give them this money?
Financial situation
This was left to my father, who immediately contacted his best friend who worked at the post office and was well aware of the financial situation at our home.
He immediately set to work and three days before Diwali they were able to redeem the money. With a decade of interest on it, my father came home with a princely sum of Rs3.50.
It wasn't much even in those days. But for the family it was a windfall.
For 50 paise, the two brothers purchased limestone paste and whitewashed the entire house themselves, giving it a festive look while the two sisters and my grandmother, went to the market and were able to fill up groceries and basics for the whole month and some sweets and savouries for a rupee.
For one rupee they bought clothes and firecrackers and were able to save a whole rupee for the next rainy day.
"You can't imagine the magnitude of our happiness. We were bursting with joy and had one of the most memorable Diwalis of our lives," he said.
More or less, money is just a facilitator, while happiness springs from that font deep within our heart and souls when we celebrate life for what it is.
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