Feeling Happy is our Choice!!
I probably had one of those bad days at office. After slogging hard for so many years something didn’t came in my plate and went into someone else’s plate. It was tough to digest the fact that the person half deserving than you getting something which you wanted.
Half dejected … instead of going home (where I live with friends) I went to cousin’s place. Little nephew was throwing his tantrums for going outside for playing with his friends. My arrival was blessing for him and he knew that his work is done. He grabbed his shoes quickly and came towards me to hold my hand and drag me outside.
It was odd evening time when all the kids of his age were at home for food. We started roaming around the play area and found one more kid there playing alone with his Superman toy. Kid was son of the caretaker living there. Soon my nephew and he started playing together with his little toy.
They started making story some sort of skit with using that toy of Superman …. Putting it on slide and catching it at end and making noises. Suddenly what happen by nephew threw it in the air and it fall on hard surface. Leg of the Superman toy was broken and got separated.
Suddenly so many thoughts came to my mind….how this kid will react will he start crying… may be he won’t have so many toys at his home….how dejected he will feel due to this broken toy. I threw angry glare at my nephew and he knew what he did so he got scared as well. Then suddenly that kid picked up the toy and told my nephew that he has magic glue at his home and he will join this hand again. Soon this will be okay like it was before. And he is also going to get remote control car in next week. Hearing this nephew got smile on his face back.
On back of my mind I knew that glue can join it back but it can’t be same working toy again and that kid knew it too. However, he never dropped his spirit. Then I asked him that who is going to bring that car to you. He just shook his head, gave me a loopy grin and said, ‘It is a surprise. I will have it next week.’
He was never getting a remote control car….but he has such a generous spirit…. that he shrugged away his gloom and made up a story about magic glue and a remote control present so that the other kid would stop feeling guilt-ridden… that he had broken his only toy.
Disappointment did hit him…like it hits all of us…but he pushed it aside…just like we wave away annoying fly so that he could continue being happy.
The bitter fact of life is that we try to chase happiness….sometimes with buying materialistic things like car…home…or some latest gadget. But a five-year-old boy didn’t stops smiling even when his only toy got brake …. That smile taught me that happiness is not a pursuit or a purchase; it’s simply a way of being.
Next morning when I entered office and someone again reminded me of that stuff which affected my mood last day…. Just to tease me. I just recalled that smiling face of kid and told him that I never really wanted it. I actually have something better planned for that time and thank god that it didn’t came to me. I felt happy even while Lying and it was fun to see the face of that other person.
P.S. – My birthday is there next weekend and I am thinking of buying that remote control car for that Kiddo ….to make his lie come true. He surely deserve that in return of smile he brought on my face.
