That's Life's Happiness

beginning my blogging career, here's sharing an article of mine published in the "INNER VOICE" column of Hindustan Times on 15th March, 2010.

(this is the the original article. A slightly edited version was published under the title "LIFE'S GAINS, MISSES" in HT "Inner Voice")

That’s Life’s Happiness!
Manisha Gupta
The little gift my husband’s friend’s mother gave me when they came over to our place is exactly what ‘life’ is actually. I opened this beautiful, flower shaped golden and white box inquisitively to see what it contained. You can’t believe my surprise and excitement at finding another, identical but slightly smaller box inside the first one. My curiosity and anxiety rising, I opened the second box only to find yet another still smaller identical version of it. Now I was really curious, my excitement heightened and imagination flying beyond control as to what gift could fit into such a tiny, cute box as this. With trembling hands, excited mind and a fluttering heart, I opened this little, decorated container….only to find that ……THAT was it !!
It suddenly dawned on me that this is precisely what life is. You go from one layer to another, from one event to the next, from this end to the other with thrill, excitement, anxiety & curiosity and go on unfolding the mystery of life at every corner. But little do you realize that at the end of it all, there is nothing, simply NOTHING. Just an empty box, a nothingness, a vacuum to be precise. And life is over. And it is all about our expectations. It is because we expect each box to contain “something”, we’re happy as long as we can “see” something inside each. But the moment we reach the last box containing nothing, we feel let down and unhappy.
Well, we all know that at the end of life, there’s just death. The catch is, whatever life there is, whatever excitement or thrill there is, it is just in “opening” each of those “boxes”, in going through each of those events, episodes and the mysterious layers of life unfolding slowly before you.
So enjoy unraveling the mystery of life, have fun going through it, keep the excitement on while crossing all the hurdles and difficulties because you never know which box is the last one. Moreover, be happy in the journey of life because life is in the journey, destination is only death!