My Precious Moments of Happiness

What is Happiness? Different people have their own interpretation of the concept of happiness; some find it in an increase in their salary, some in helping others, some in being able to whatever they want to, some in having enough and some in being a part of something that matters….. What is my say on this? To be frank, even I don’t know what it means to me for I haven’t tasted all that life has to offer. But it has been one hell of an adventure for me to at least shed some light on what made me happy in the past, the moments that I’ll never forget and cherish for life.

My first memory of happiness is that of the time when I got money from my parents to buy biscuits……. that seems ordinary, doesn’t it? But that’s just half of it….. I used to get one or two bucks (Ngultrum, of course) or at the most a blue note of ten. Then I would go to the shop just above our house to buy some biscuits (Yeah, biscuits with one Ngultrum). The shop sold four pieces of biscuits for just a buck. Then I would head back home and add some toppings like a jam or, as weird as it sounds, tomato sauce…… It was not that I didn’t get to eat anything from my house but the feeling of going all the way up to the shop and coming back alone with edibles you just bought is on a totally awesome…… by the I might have been just four or five at that time so yeah going out alone was really a great achievement. :-D

Joining the school was, by far, the best “happiest moment” of my life…. I was so eager to join school during those days….. I wanted to draw and write like my cousins, have a geometry box and other stationeries to call my own, be busy after six with homework and studies, have friends from different parts of the town. But I don’t know what happened to me after sometime. I became lazy and didn’t feel like going to school every day and doing my homework. But like I said joining the school was the happiest moment, not my school life :-P hehehe…….  

Then I had my first crush………. And I better stop here because the memory is a bit too hazy plus it wasn’t the best feeling :-P

Then I entered my teen years, and I found everything around me irritating and repulsive, I was a mad teen without any reason and it seemed like my list of happiest moments would end there. But one day, BANG!!!!!! My mom got me a guitar and there I was, as happy as a smurf. I always wanted to learn to play the guitar and other musical instruments. Then my journey towards a musical future began and I rode the wind like an eagle soaring high in the sky, going nowhere…..just flying round in circles…..seriously I hate the fact that I still can’t play it that good…… But getting a kick start with it is enough for me right now because a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and I have already taken my first step.

I waited patiently for my results, waited in the cold winter of the capital, waited in the dark alleys of Motithang, waited  by the shed beneath my house, waited, and waited by the flickering light of the television……..but when our results were due I was outside playing basketball. The result was more than I expected by the grace of God and thanks to the merits of my past life and a wee bit to the effort I put at the end of the year. Being included into a list of students with the opportunity to pursue higher education abroad was a great feeling in itself but as if that wasn’t enough, Their Majesties, The Fifth Druk Gyelpo and The Gyeltsuen, granted us an audience. It was such an awesome and a wish fulfilling moment, not only for me but for every single student present there. I, for one, was very happy that day like never before and can never forget that day. The only problem with this memory is that I didn’t get the picture we took with Their Majesties, where everyone’s happy face is seen including mine…… the photo that spread through the newspapers and the internet only show one of my big ears L.

And now as I write (or rather type) down these final lines I wish to have more moments like these to be remembered in the future and to be narrated to my great grand children……

With this, I would like to wish all the readers a very Happy International Day of Happiness. May you be happy not only today but every day of your lives……

                                            

BE HAPPY ALWAYS AND FOREVER