The Search

“I want to be happy in life more than being successful in life.” The interviewers were amused .An offbeat response from a member of the facebook generation who usually want to follow the quick route to success. Wasn’t that also a very clichéd statement which usually comes from people who have lost the will to fight, have lost the hunger to achieve? The words did not gel with the profile of the speaker. The twenty two year old young man was in search of a myth called happiness.

He was a man from a broken home. He never spoke about his father. His   mother sent him away to a boarding school when he was a kid. After he completed twelve years of schooling he was sent to his maternal uncle’s home who welcomed him with open arms .He called his maternal aunt “ma”. He had never stayed with his biological mother. A professional woman she did not want her son to be with her. He visited his mother occasionally .His current boss tells me he hunts for a father figure in his seniors.

“Did you enjoy boarding life”

“I hated it. I cried regularly, I rebelled .I did not understand why I had to stay here .Every morning I had to swallow porridge and often with worms swimming in the bowl. Food was terrible. “He smiles”I love food.” “Only when I was in high school I realised the worth of community life”

“I pitied my classmates, my friends who always complained about petty things in life .They had so much yet they complained. They  had no idea about  the grim side of life .I had already seen so  much ,undergone so  much …I  have become stronger .” The young man was carrying deep pain in his soul which became evident to outsiders through the sarcasm in his eyes. Had he become bitter. Pain can sometimes fester like a hidden ulcer.

He was a star performer at the latest marketing campaign in the office where he worked. He had a wide circle of friends and found easy to interact with people from all levels .His sense of humour was brilliant .Like any young person he was bubbling with energy .Suffering had taught him to value small things in life which children from regular homes sometimes take for granted. He is obviously not influenced by the dreams and ambitions of doting parents which so often sit heavily on the minds of young children.  I hope he finds true happiness, whatever that might be. I also hope that he realises that success and happiness are not always at divergence. Happiness is after all a state of the mind.