Carpe Diem

A wintry 31st December night, a sunny 1st January, that naughtiness in the air when holi around, that lively diwali night. There are some days when you ought to live; not that you shouldn’t on the remaining days (marvel the audacity of the writer!), but these days have a ‘oh- so- special feeling’ attached to it. And if you let these days pass like any humdrum day in your life, don’t you think you have missed out on something? And it is not only the festive days I want to speak on. It could be any day, any day which is special, any day which ought to be LIVED.

Tell me this, what is the whole purpose of one’s life? To be happy? Isn’t it? Sweet and uncomplicated. No Robin Sharma kind of a crap. Happiness, as naked as you can imagine and since it is a relative term, I don’t have any authority over its explanation. For someone, it might be getting sloshed with friends, for someone it might mean a quiet dinner at the restaurant.

These days calls you to be yourself, to have your happiness and peace in this world, completely in your way; no matter how crazy or uptight that is. But, people fail to understand this. They really do. Now, I’m not some distant relative of Sigmund Freud to give you some “gyan” on happiness. But, seriously, for a second consider this. Imagine a hard worker, a slogger in the real sense. Works hard; day in, day out. Works an hour extra so that he gets his son those Reebok studs. He wishes the day be of 28 hrs, so that he could send a grand dollar more to his son, or it could be anyone working hard beyond belief, what for? In the pursuit of happiness, hoping to make their life comfortable, content and when the time comes to really LIVE, what do they do? Engulfed in the same cocoon of problems, he is still $500 short, the Reebok studs will have to wait for a month or two. Now, what does all that slogging amount to? He hasn’t only failed the occasion, he has failed himself.

Imagine this, Someone having lakhs in his bank account, but can’t even share a 50 rupees beer with his friends. A regular bank clerk orders that special chicken dish(read costly) when he is having dinner with his family because he knows what happiness is, he knows the worth of his child’s smile, he understands the warmth between him and his wife and most importantly knows and respects the occasion. Tell me, who is richer?