To moments that make you feel alive

Throughout my life, I have pondered what constitutes happiness. I was at first under the impression that happiness could be what ensues after attaining enough wealth or fame. Observing life unfolding around me has taught me that this is quite far from the truth. Even people whom we believe to be truly happy may be the exact opposite of happy. Every time I intentionally tried to search for happiness, I always wound up with nothing. But every time I took on life with an open mind, with no hope of finding happiness, I was surprised with how much happiness came across my way. 

One such memorable instance would be an improptu trip to Trivandrum with my friends. You could say that one good thing that came out of my watch breaking was this trip. It was almost midday and I somehow managed to convince my mother to let me go and pick up my watch on that day. I don’t know why, that day seemed as good as any other day to run errands to me. My sister would then present one of the best ideas that has ever come to her : “We should call everybody and make it a trip”. After picking everyone up from different locations, one of which was a College from where we would “kidnap” our friend, we hit the road. The three hour journey went by quite fast with the roasting sessions and the jamming sessions. We ran errands, ate for the whole week, went to an arcade and even rode the kiddie train in the mall. I can confidently say that it was the most fun I had in a very long time.

What I suspected would be quite an uneventful drive back home, turned out to be one of the most memorable journeys of my entire life. Everyone was chatting on the way back home and I had the time of my life driving back.  Driving back late at night, there was a moment where I really became one with the road. It my sound cheesy, but that would be the only way to explain how I felt at that moment. The song that was playing on the radio was “Padayatra”. As the song went on , I found myself easing off on the gas and gripping the steering wheel like never before. I went back in time to all those underappreciated happy moments in my life. The memorable trips I have had, the moments that made me feel not alone, and simple joys like the late night drives I used to go on with my mother. At that moment, I was truly happy. Thinking about how my life had changed and how much I had grown as a person in a couple of years made that moment bittersweet. On the final stretch of road to my home, I had to hold back tears.

The quest for happiness is still an unending one for me, but moments like these always make me reconsider the true meaning of happiness. Its often the little things, the moments you get lost in, that you would remember for a long time rather than any of the other  “big things”. Maybe these moments are what you may call happiness pills. Maybe one of those every once in a while with people who “see” you is all you need to be truly happy.