Happiness, what is it? Does it do good always?

Disclaimer: If you do want to think please don't read this post. It might be boring, read it at your own risk.

Last Sunday, I was talking to Gautham, a person whom I can talk freely about what is in my mind to some extent. It has been some time since we spoke to each other, as usual we had the usual gossip about our friends and other things for a while and then somehow went on to to muse about happiness.

Though it may see odd and you might think what the hell is there to discuss about happiness, it was an interesting one to me. After a long time Gautham made me put the thinking cap on, thanks Gautham.

So what is happiness? Is it a feeling? a state? Does it have a benchmark?

Happiness is a feeling which our mind yearns about, a state which each one of us will be happy to go into. Can we say for sure what will make us happy 1 year now?

Yeah maybe to some extent, but how accurate it will be? I had a dream that one day I should have a laptop of my own, an ultra modern one, and here I am having one. Though I am happy, I am not as happy as I thought I would be before I got it. for most of us, perhaps in many aspects of life, our mind wavers like this once it reaches in pre-defined goal. This yearning has indeed led to the advancement in technology and the progress we have made from the Classical age to the industrialized age we are in.

However this property of mind has left millions of people without a peace of mind, with jealously, with frustration and even in some cases hatred.

If I were asked to define happiness, I would define it as, "Happiness is a state of mind which a human wants to achieve, however once the state is reached, the standard for it is changed to a different state from the one we achieved just now."

One more question which came to my mind was whether happiness is directly proportional to the increase in civilization of mind, an improved society. I believe it is not always, because happiness is a state of mind which we covert to and a state which we desire because of the impact of the society and society's impact may not be the positive way always. However if we humans are happy, calm and serene we can think about the problems facing us and set out to solve them. So happiness is indeed positive to some extent.

And do we enjoy the state of happiness alone, don't we enjoy the challenges that we face, the depressions we have? I have sometimes enjoyed the ride, passionately and relentlessly worked on to come out of the difficult situations. Though I wasn't successful always I had worked hard and didn't feel dejected because everything is not under our control, or any other power, in this world filled with randomness.

In a nutshell, though my mind earns for happiness, I believe the Pursuit of happiness is a more interesting and satisfying after we have completed a stage of the journey. However it is a never ending journey, a journey which we all pursue till our last breath. And those who know their destination, plan the journey in stages and work hard for it will be satisfied and might do wonders to the society in many instances.

Though they may not reach their destination, those will be satisfied like the fox in this story.

No more watching Cricket

I still remember those days at Nungambakkam, Chennai when I used to get up early in the morning along with my Grandfather and my cousin to watch the Cricket World Cup held at Australia in 1992. For the past 17 years Cricket has been an integral part of my life, just like a typical Indian kid one of the activities for which I have spent a major portion of my life time is cricket. I have been so mad and passionate about the game in my life so far, I have faked stomach aches as early my III standard to watch Sachin play, cut my classes to see Dravid forge a beautiful century in Australia, sacrificied a lot of things to watch and play the game.

The moment I open my web browser,my hand involuntarily will type www.cricinfo.com, though I am not a great player of the game I was a kind of nerd in cricket.

Then why suddenly stop watching the game which has been so close to my life?

The thing which made me take this decision was India teams act of playing in Sri Lanka, a land which a genocide has just taken place. I was disgusted to see that Indian team choose to play over there at this situation, it's money which counts and not anything else.

A few of my friends considered me stupid and told me that the decision is not in the hand of cricketers, I do agree that. But if they had refused on moral grounds, a lot of people would have sat up and noticed the carnage which goes on. And all the more there was one tamil player in the who didn't expressed anything about what's going on there.

I don't know why people never think in these lines, why are they not sensible.

Some do question me that I am overflowing with emotions just because I am a tamil, for those I would like to strongly state that I am a human. I have spent lot of slepless nights thinking about the plight suffered by thehardships faced by people in Kandhar, Darfur, Gaza, North West Frontier province, Eelam, North Eastern India, Kashmir, Gujarat, etc.

I am more attached to Eelam because I have seen many who have been affected by the problem. Also if I can act with proper determination and sensibility I bring a change to their lives. Though I have to admit with guilt that I have not done it properly so far.

Thats why decided against watching cricket and do something useful during those times. Sometimes it is tempting to watch it, but so far I have been able to restrain myself. I have not visited Cricinfo's website once I came to India is going to Lanka, however watched a few portions of Lanka Vs England match when they were watching it in my room. But certainly determined to stop watching cricket.