Last Monday I made sure I reminded my bosses that this weekend (26-27) and the next have to be a long weekend due to pooja holidays and Gandhi Jayanthi. We just don’t have a leave calendar (start up!!!) š So last Saturday I was just lazying around at home (had some neck pain and decided not to step out of house). Towards the evening we were expecting guests for the kolu…Our family friend was expected to come and yeah he came just before the dinner time š It was nice to meet him after quite some time (read years) and generally we were socializing…This family friend has two kids and one of them is doing her Std 10. I wasn’t like really talking to her but my parents were pulling her leg a lot… By then one of my sister’s friend had also joined for the kolu. Soon there were lots of talking and my mom asked this kid to sing a song. Looks like she has just started planning to learn š But my sis’ friend readily accepted and started singing a carnatic song…It was a song about lord muruga and it was really nice…The modulations and the genuine interest she had in singing it was definitely impressive…
Sooner it was time for this family friend to bid adieu and I accompanied them to the near by but stop…I got them a auto to drop them at the next bus stand from where they have a direct bus to their place. When they got in to the auto and I waved them goodbye, this girl was waving her hand like anything with full smiles and saying “Bye anna”. She had this innocent smile on her face and she was waving her hand till the auto went out of our sight…
Towards the end of a boring day, these two small incidents definitely made my day. As I walked down back to my house the thought that struck me was that may be we (I and most of the people I know) are trying to find happiness by going after things like car, house, lots of disposable income, weekend getaways, etc…But I feel you get this real happiness in small things that happen in your day-to-day life. We mostly ignore such things and take it for granted. We want to buy that expensive mobile phone (N97?, E75?, HTC diamond?, G1?), a home theatre (25K Onkoyo?, 1.1L Premium Digital?, 2.5L Klepsch?), house (3 BR?, 4BR pent house?, independent villa?), car (punto?, City? Q7?)…As you see there are just no limits to each of these things that we generally chase…
But the real happiness lies in things like the smell of the freshly baked bread as you cross that bakery, giving a bike ride to that person desperately looking for it on a rainy day, holding the elevator for another 4-5 seconds as someone is running to catch it, giving a smile back and saying “thanks nna” to that security guard of a mall who directed you to another route as the usual one is water logged, catching up with the maintenance guy in your company and seeing that smile (as nobody else talks to him due to hierarchical stuff) when you are done with the conversation, telling your mom that the vada she made is really good (even if she makes it good every other time she cooks)…these are things that really matter…
Raghu's Ramblings 
Finally I found one of your post to be amazing da. I too have given thought about all the above said the minute I got my first salary. I felt like I was burdened with some thing and found that missed certain silly things that I did in my college and school days. When you are home it is a big deal if you say a small thing like “the cooking was good” or “it was a great job”. I always tell my friends just to say “thank you” to the security guard at the parking lot or the person behind the counter or where ever. This makes a big difference. I think a lot of the people will understand in near future.
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