SHORT REFLECTIVE ACCOUNTS OF SIGNIFIGANT LIFE EXPERIENCES

“HAPINESS IS NOT SOMETHING READY MADE. IT COMES FROM YOUR OWN ACTIONS.”

“YOU WILL NEVER BE HAPPY IF YOU CONTINUE TO SEARCH FOR WHAT HAPPINESS CONSISTS OF.” 

Life is a great teacher as we never really ever stop learning from our experiences in life. There is a quote that goes: “A wise man learns from the surroundings and a fool man just busy in life”. We live in a pretty demanding world full of million distractions and things to keep us pretty busy. Some of the things are important and demand our attention, others are less important.

It was just another normal day. In-between the chit-chats, a friend told us that she has started an NGO to help the poor. I praised her for her new venture , but she didn’t seemed too happy which was strange since it was a really noble cause and I knew how much this meant to her. When I asked the reason of her sullen mood, she told that she has been looking for volunteers since many days but didn’t have any success yet. Everyone was all praises for her but nobody had time to help her due to one reason or another and it was really upsetting her. You see, she had the tendency to talk a lot while she was upset and I had the tendency to listen to her. At the end of conversation, she asked me if I would come with her at an orphanage on Sunday. Honestly, the first thing that flashed into my mind was a long list of assignments and projects that I have not completed yet in the hope of finishing them on Sunday. Also, mid-semester exams were near and I had to prepare for them too.  I knew that helping her in such a good work didn’t required that much of deliberation and I actually wanted to help her but I really had a lot of work to do. All the time while I was pondering about the ‘to-do’ list on Sunday, she was staring intently at me. After thinking about it for a little too long, I told her that I will be glad to help her and will definitely join her on Sunday. I always wanted to do work for a noble cause, I always dream about this but I never get chance in my life but when I got chance I realized that I am quite busy with my schedule but the thing is that I cannot miss this chance. So, I thought to join it from Sunday because this will help me to give inner peace in my life. 

Sunday came and I packed all the toys, books and other items which I thought might be useful for children and went for the orphanage. I was very nervous since I had never gone to an orphanage before. Upon reaching there, I saw from a distance that she and her other team members had already started distributing things among children. I entered the room and saw that my friend was surrounded with a lot of children who were shouting for the things they need. Every one of them had different wishes, some wanted jeans, some t-shirts and a few of them also asked if we can give them goggles. The one thing that really amazed me was that even though they didn’t have all the luxuries of life, which a normal child wishes for, still they were all very happy. Only thing matter is that they all are happy without any luxury in their life. They are happy in every situation and they do not have specific criteria of happiness, they just enjoy their life and they are happy to get toys, clothes and etc from orphanages. We are just running behind money and this is the only thing which gives happiness to everybody on this earth but in real money is not everything. Happiness is not means to have lots of money and wearing branded clothes and visiting to 5 star hotels and partying all the time. But in real happiness means to have quality of good wishers around you.  And those children have one thing common. Happiness was the one thing that was common in all of them. It was very sad to see these less fortunate children who are unable to get what they want or need but still they never complained about it. They are just so happy to get those things. They were as happy and content as any other person with all the luxuries can be. While I was amazed by the sight in front of him, I thought of all the times when I became miserable when I didn’t got my favorite dress, or when I couldn’t eat my favorite dish. And about all the times I failed to be grateful for what I have. I got frustrated when I do not get what I want this makes me feel irritated, this leads to angriness at some level and I simply forget that God has given me enough things in my life and I should be grateful to my parents and my God. I went forward to talk to them and they answered everybody’s questions with great enthusiasm. I asked one of them that whose is your friend here and I was amazed by the answer I received. He said ‘they all are my friends’. I am amazed to hear this because now a day’s people say I have only friends or I have only two best friends etc but what they said that they all are friends and they have a feeling of unity, brotherhood and have love between them.  This simply teaches us a feeling that is feeling of unity. The one thing I learned from this experience was that in the hustle- bustle of our everyday lives, we completely forgets about the things we should appreciate because we are lucky to enjoy these things and not everyone is able to enjoy them. We become so ungrateful sometimes that we fail to understand that what we have is enough. We complaint if we don’t get certain  things and become sad  and here were these children, in front of me, with bare feet’s and torn clothes, without the presence of their parents and loved ones, but everyone of them had hopeful eyes and all the smiles. These children teaches me a lot about Happiness in life, Unity with peer groups and they are happy in what they have and not expecting too much because expecting lot in life leads to sadness and failure if we not able to achieve it. They are simply happy in what God have given to them. They are not running behind anything, they just enjoying life without any tension. I spended almost 6 hours with them, I played games with them, I asked about their future dream and what is their needs and what are their dreams in life and everybody have a big dreams in their life. No doubt they do not have platform to fulfill their needs and dreams but one thing is positive about them is that they still dreaming big in their life. This positivity impressed me a lot. And I thought to adapt this positivity in my life and I always follow this. Life is the greatest gift of God. It is beautiful yet unpredictable. If at times you have enjoyed life to its fullest there will be also be time when you are let down. We all go through hard times. No matter however satisfied you are, everyone goes through the most difficult situations of life. Life is not a bed of red roses. Sometime there is a bed of red roses and sometime there is a bed of black roses in our path. There comes a time in life when you are little blue. One or the other rough situations occurs in your life which leaves you shattered with a heavy heart. So they teach me to smile in even hard times of my life. After spending some time with them, me and others left with a promise to visit them again and I was sure that I will fulfill this promise of mine and will visit them again even if it was a Sunday and I had a lot of work to do. These children make me happy and they teach me to be happy in hardest time of my life and they teach me to smile even in bad times or times when things are not going according to me.