IN THE NEW YEAR, WHICH IS BARELY TWO SUNSETS AWAY











The things that excited me decades ago, when I was much younger in age, do not excite me anymore. What I defined as ‘Success’, then, is no more the definition of that term… Fame looks very fickle and pale in the quiet serenity that I experience, now, in my inner understanding… Laughter and joy, which, sometime, somewhere, seemed buried beneath the weight of misplaced notions of social mirror, resurface when I drop that burden and nurse the child within me…

As a child, I laughed effortlessly, I felt the joy… simply… just like that. Yes, just like that!

And, now, why this strain? Why this seriousness?


As the year 2018 comes to an end, I ask: Did I laugh more or cry more through the year? Did I see more hope or more despair?

Like everyone else around me, I, too, have already begun to greet people - ‘A Happy New Year’… And, yes, though it sounds more like an old habit – rather an old custom – I, think, it’s a good-old habit, a good-old custom… I want the New Year to be a happy one, for every one…

But, then, that elusive stuff – ‘Happiness’!

Sometimes, I wonder: “Is not our happiness found right as we go about our daily grind… in our small and simple things? Don’t we have the choice to find our simple joy, right in the midst of our struggles and pains? Do we have to wait till the big-bang things happen in our lives, yes, to be happy?

If simple and small things were where I had to find my happiness, in 2018, I had a real treasure in my heart… Maybe, I have not been able to acknowledge and appreciate it enough… But, that’s what it was – a real treasure!

Were there good friends, associates and relatives around, when I needed them the most?

Yes, so many of them...

Were there those who showed their back?

I do not think even if anybody did, he did it on purpose… No, I have no complaints.

And, what about me – Was I there for those who wanted me in their need? Did I show my back to them?

That is the true test… If I couldn’t be there for everyone, every time and everywhere, my fellow being, too, couldn’t have been…

Peace lies in the understanding of the reality… The less I depend on others for my happiness, the more peaceful I feel…


So, in the New Year, which is barely two-sunsets away, I shall be keeping my life a lot leaner and a lot uncomplicated… May the simple and small things continue to cheer my heart… May my heart never be fooled by the mirage called – ‘Success’ and ‘Happiness’…

And, may you all – my near and dear ones – too, find your success and happiness in your own simple and small treasures… May your lives, too, be a lot leaner and uncomplicated…

A Happy New Year in advance…


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Rashmi Sondhi

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