The pursuit of Happiness

"Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." -Thoreau

I came across this quote in one of my aimless internet browsing sessions. These sessions have considerably increased over the last one month as the reasons being summer internship at a remote village in Gujarat, where the work is done mostly from my room. If you expect this post to be somehow related to the famous movie of Chris Gartner, you might be wrong to the most part. But I confess that I chose the title of the blog as the movie's name as I did not find anything more catchy. This is similar to the packaging part of marketing, yes this is how people start to think after an year of MBA. This short post of mine is more of a retrospection of few aspects of my life, and I bet most of us would have had similar experiences.

I remember this incident when I was seven years old. I completed my second standard and was about to join my third standard. We visited our grandpa's place in Guntur. Guntur was and still is the favorite destination for most of my cousins. I still cherish the endless get-together s of all families of my Mom's sisters and the fun we all had. This was also a similar visit and the most important achievement that time was I learned to ride a bicycle. I loved it. I was just seven years old and my love for driving started then. Then started my first big desire - a bicycle. After a big fuss which I created, my grandpa agreed to buy me a bicycle on my mom's behalf. Here started my big chain of gadgets acquisition list.

I loved toys. My list for new toys always kept growing. I bought a toy gun whenever I visited exhibitions or amusement parks. I loved cars, especially remote controlled. I remember a remote controlled BMW, my Dad brought from Singapore. I loved it but as most of the children do, I somehow damaged it and broke it after sometime. Then came MRF racing jeeps. My long list never ended. As I grew older, electronic gadgets came in. It started with video game. The video game cassettes 16 in 1; 700 in 1 and remember the games CONTRA, Mario and many more. My mom and Dad always gave into my brother's and my wishes. But I now realize the happiness they felt when we were excited by such small things.

Then the came the real stuff. Life, Career.. OMG! The need for achieving, winning and recognition etc. My first academic achievement was my class 10th board exams. I felt proud when everybody of my family congratulated me. Then was the engineering entrance exam, job, CAT etc. Sometimes, I also felt bad about the road not taken. After joining my electrical engineering, I wondered many a time whether I should have chosen Medicine. I hope at least this list stops after MBA. But there is one thing, the joy or happiness an achievement gives us is beautiful. It is much sweeter when we get something after we work hard for it. The hope and plans for future never stopped. Now its even more serious and realistic! Love, marriage etc. for life and of course job, companies etc. for career.

Planning for future is good. In fact, "It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark". But I started wondering, will this planning ever stop!! Will a time come when I would say Enough, I have all I want. I don't know about this but most of the great people preached that self satisfaction is very necessary for any man. But at the same time there are people who told that people should always be aiming for growth and betterment. Inspiration, Motivation etc. etc. They are not at all bad, in fact they are very much needed to survive in today's world. But there was a time when these were not needed. People were happy. I always told my friends and I still believe that happiness is what we should all yearn for. I only hope that all this planning, yearning, etc. will lead me to a perfect and happy life. After all, the Bible says “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

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