What is happiness? A state of total satisfaction and completeness? The culmination of professional accomplishment and personal meaning?
The pursuit of happiness. Is it a pursuit we are all in but can never fully realize? Does the dream of happiness necessarily result in disappointment - or worse - when not attained?
Isn't it amazing how much happier people with "less" seem to be than people with "more"? I've found this to be true here in India especially.
As I approach the quarter-century mark (read: quarter-life crisis), I find myself contemplating happiness, how happy I am, how happy I should expect to be.
I don't have any answers just yet. What I do know (and hope) is that I and we can find happiness in serving, loving, and giving to others.
As Gandhi Ji said, "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Or as Mother Teresa said, "Do the small things with love, and He will take care of the greater ones."
मेरा नाम हे ऋषि ऋषिहेऔरमी आप के साथ बात कर रा हूँ हिन्दी मैं। अबी मी इंडिया मी रे था हूँ। मुज डेल्ही बहुत पसंद है। बहुत दिन हो गए आप के साथ बात करने मैं। या हां इंडिया मी मैं बहुत खुश हूँ। आचा लग रा हे अमरीका के बहार।
Iनदिया बहुत ला जवाब जगा है। इतने किसम के लोग यहाँ रे थीं हैं साथ साथ।
इंडिया के लोग बहुत अचाई हैं। इस देश आचे से ऊपर जा रा हा है लेकिन और बी काम बखी है। अगर मी याहा थोरासा कुछ कर सक था हूँ इंडिया कय्लिय, मी खुश होजा ओंगा।
Controlling for all other factors, San Francisco might be the most desirable city to spend one, some, or all of life's moments.
The weather this weekend was quite warm (admittedly rare) and the city was in top form, showing off its rolling hills, lush flora and fauna, awesome skyscrapers, romantic neighborhoods, remarkable bridges, and blue ocean. This city's sheer beauty and charm has the ability to inspire, offer hope, and energize in a way I have never seen or felt before.
From a cafe in North Beach - my new obsession. :-)
In my limited life experience, I've been lucky enough to, quite literally, meet people from all walks of life.
It's always fascinates me to see all kinds of people - powerful and powerless, wealthy and poor, loud and silent - exhibit their sameness, their core humanity that is consistent in all people. The same emotions. The same mistakes. The same routines. The same smiles. The same frustrations. The same fatigue. The same questions. The same hopes. The same insecurities.
The same parallels can be made about groups of people. The same awkwardness. The same dynamics. The same decisions. The same inefficiencies. The same relationships. The same pain. The same love.
For me, this observation has - at once - been clarifying and reassuring.
Random: Why aren't more people interested in other human beings?
By the way, I blame U2 for my being a naive idealist and Bollywood for my being a hopeless romantic.
I don't think anyone is reading (just yet) so I guess it's still just me talking to myself at this point. A few things...
I need to be more disciplined and routine-ish across the board. Case and point: it's been nearly five months since my first post to this blog. Ridiculous! I need to learn to view my own personal writing not as a work-ish task, but as a relaxing and fun escape.
Random topic I've been contemplating recently: The tension between living a life of amazing and enriching experiences and a life full of impact and concrete accomplishment. I think the goal ought to be to strike a meaningful balance - they're clearly not mutually exclusive.. so maybe there isn't a tension?
I was recently in India! What a fascinating, thought-provoking, romantic, and kind country. Opportunities in India are seemingly endless. What makes India the most special place in the world is that it is, at once, so many things - indeed, everything at once. It may be the only country in the world to constitute a microcosm of the human condition. In one country, you have cold winters, sultry summers, abject poverty, unabashed wealth, Western multinationals, millennia-old traditions, and people, faiths, and languages from all corners of the world.
By the way, this blog isn't called "Seer of Truth" for self-important reasons. It's actually what my name means in a Hindu and Indian context. :-)
A couple of final and, well, miscellaneous notes: San Francisco is such a beautiful city! It has an impeccable "resume" - perhaps better than any city in the world. I worry that I haven't done enough to enjoy it.
And I love U2, especially their less-appreciated songs. :-)
