What makes me happy

Sometimes I think life is nothing but a pursuit of happiness. Yes we all want to eat good food, dress well and be admired etc etc, but what really makes us happy is different for all of us at different stages of life. Last night I was thinking of what really makes me happy. Or rather what events in my life have really made me happy.

I guess if I go back all the way to kindergarten, I would say the happiest moments in that stage of my life were when I was allowed to play with my building blocks. I also remember that black was my favourite colour in my crayon box. I would end up colouring everything with the same colour and as a result I would end up finishing it off. In the end I would get my kicks if my brother exchanged his black crayon with one of my other crayons.

As a kid I was petrified of going to the loo during the night. No matter how late it was at night I would wake up my sister to come stand at the back door so that I could go to the toilet. And for the rest of the night my sister would be the bravest person in the whole wide world for me. And when she consented to get out of bed and walk me to the loo - well that made me really happy.

As I grew up I noticed that best things in life were making friends. And on the first day of school for the year, I would run into the class (after the morning assembly) and try and get the class bench of my choice. We would "save" the rest of the bench to our chaddi buddies and they would do vice versa. When the whole bench was full of "my" buddies, then that made me really happy.

I was a studious kid right from the start. But remembering things was never one of my strongest points. Despite doing my homework I would forget it at home or misplace it somewhere. I would have to depend on one of my bench buddies to let me copy his homework during the recess. And if I could finish my homework before the final bell rang, well that made me really happy.

When I joined Kodaikanal during my high school years the naughtiness in me had started to bloom. I would do lots of things and my friends would stand by me through thick and thin. Being hungry for movies I would sneak out of the hostel along with other buddies and return late at night. And the watchman, who had become our buddy, would actually walk us to the theatre to see that we got there safely. And regardless of whether the movie was good or bad, it was the escapade that made me happy.

During college years bunking classes, drinking tea from road side stall, going for movies 'first day first show', cheering my buddies when they competed against other colleges, shouting "principal down down" during strikes for petty issues. All those made me happy.

Fast forward to present. What makes me happy today? I guess there are lots of things. Doing my work and seeing that the stocks that I had recommended to my clients zooming up the charts. Playing soccer with little kids at the end of the day. Playing computer games late into the night and finishing off the level that had been pestering me for weeks together. And I have realised one thing - its always the little things in life that makes us most happy.