M G Harish

Sunday, July 29, 2007

The Pursuit of Happiness

If you are thinking that it is another review of the famous movie The Pursuit of Happyness, you've got it wrong. It's about my own experiences and a little beyond.

What can be called a happy moment?
Is that when you learn a new art? Is that when look at your old photos and smile unknowingly? Is that when you giggle naughtily over silly jokes? Is that when your eyes are filled with tears after laughing? Is that when you win a lottery? Is that when you venture a great risk? Is that when you recall a good long conversation you had with your friend? Is that when you get a hug from someone you really love?
Or, probably, each of them and many more?


Life is really a balanced mixture of both joyous and sorrow moments (don't think I am being too philosophical, but that is what it is, right?). But it depends on someone's attitude, may that be positive or negative.

Currently, I am in the process of transforming from a student to an engineer. But I am still an Amul Baby for some of my friends and childlike for my parents. I haven't set off to know why, so I can only guess. My guess is as good/bad as yours, so I would be more than happy to know the reasons.

As we all know, life is a peculiar teacher, who keeps the tests and then teaches lessons. It is in the midst of the most difficult times, when you learn the lessons. In these holidays, which are as boring and useless (for me, that is) as they could have been, I've been taught some lessons. For one thing, I now know that every person is selfish in one or the other way, more or less. I'm not an exception, of course. You can neither blame anyone for that, nor can you stop being friendly with those. The more you know about someone, the more you explore the darker side of that person. It is just the amount of selfishness they possess, that helps us decide whether to believe them or not. Trust is a bond which keeps us bound together. As long as there is trust in friendship, the brighter side overrules the darker side and there won't be any problem. Once that trust is lost, misunderstandings begin. Trust is easy to gain, difficult to conserve. Here is a dialogue from the Kannada movie Mungaru Male:



For the other, many people seem to believe that anything can be gained by doing a little wrongdoing. One has to choose between what is right and what is easy, as J K Rowling says in her book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The right path may not be easy and the easy path may not be the right one. They also forget that a truth is more powerful than a bunch of lies and a lie is more evil than many truths. Trying to make people understand this fact is both useless and unnecessary. They will be used to what they have done in the past. But it is a pity that they argue sometimes and claim what they have done is right. What did I learn from it? As long as one doesn't poke his nose into others' matters, he an be as happy as he can. If you don't ever bother about others, you'll be named a selfish person. If you don't bother about yourself, you'll be named a careless person. If you bother about everyone, people think you don't have anything else to do. So it is better to do whatever you fancy, as long as it makes you happy and doesn't make others unhappy.

But it is a human tendency to do things which are absolutely unnecessary. Sometimes I wonder, why does life keep teaching us lessons when we have no intentions of learning?