A proper definition of happiness remains as ever, elusive. There has been scholars and thinkers who have spent ages wondering what it could mean. I asked the same question to my friends yesterday on Facebook and I got interesting answers.
To few of my younger lot of friends, happiness is Biryani or playing football. While a friend said happiness for her is a choice and that she is happy because she chooses to be, another friend who is an entrepreneur says happiness is his decision. The social worker friend said, happiness to him is when he makes a different in someone else’s life in the littlest way he can. To a few of my friends, happiness is being themselves, satisfied life and perhaps, the tightest hug from their younger sibling.
Perhaps all of them put together or nothing at all. Happiness can be in spending some time with your infant child, begging the rest of the day to feed him two square meals, for him to survive somehow. Happiness is accepting the fact that your husband has left you after you met an accident recently. The accident left you handicapped and you can not walk properly.
This Eid has been slightly different for me. As I waited for a friend near Mahatma Gandhi Metro Station gate 3, I noticed a woman hugging her son. She noticed me noticing them and what followed was a small Eid celebration together. The rooflessness was no deterrent to her happiness, specially when she was celebrating Eid with her son.
I asked her, “What is happiness to you?” She said – “To give my everything to my son and to see him grow.”
She took me to the place where they stay with their other roofless neighbours. For me, it was slightly weird and uncomfortable because if you follow my blog, I do not really photograph the homeless destitute. But this was special. Although homeless, these people were happy. Sharing with you, few photographs of the time we spent together.
Before parting, I handed her some currency notes, which she was shy to accept initially. Words fail me when I try to express myself, the feeling is unparalleled to any other experiences I have had. I wish I could do more to help her.