Happiness is so easy

Joy of Life: Painting by Francois Girard

“Mother asked me whether I have spoiled you by pampering you,” Sheena said. She was on the phone. She had sent me an image of her dinner plate some half an hour ago: one chapati folded neatly into two, three pieces of grilled chicken, a few slices of raw onion, and some homemade sauce. She is a good cook and loves doing it. I think she loves whatever she does. No wonder, she is always happy. It is a delight to talk to her; happiness spreads from her very being into our souls in a mysterious osmotic process.

Sheena (not her real name) is a class 12 student of mine. The online Parent-Teacher Meeting was over a couple of hours ago and I buried myself in the sardonic humour of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light. When Thomas Cromwell’s “chief duty” of getting his king new wives and disposing of the old begins to weigh heavy on my aesthetics, I put aside the novel and pick up my phone. That’s when I see Sheena’s tempting dinner plate on WhatsApp. I write a casual response and move on to other messages. Soon the phone rings. The screen shows Sheena’s image.

My serene living room erupts into a bubbly world of quirks and sparks. There is the soft pitter-patter of the rain on the leaves outside. I turn the phone’s speaker on so that Maggie won’t miss the fun. Nobody would have imagined that what followed was a conversation between two teachers and a student.

Sheena had called to thank me for being “so gentle a teacher” during the PTM. Her mother had attended the meeting from abroad where she worked. “I often tell mother about you,” Sheena says to me, “and mother is concerned whether I am spoiling you with all this pampering.” Maggie and I laugh. The conversation is soon hijacked by the two of them.  

“How does she manage to be so happy?” Maggie asks when it’s all over. Sheena’s ebullience is contagious. It has flowed into Maggie too.

“Happiness is her existential status,” I answer. She is one of those rare souls that don’t need reasons to be happy. They don’t seek anything in order to be happy. They don’t derive happiness from something external. Happiness is within them. They are happiness. Happiness is them.

I know that life isn’t a bed of roses for Sheena. Being the eldest child, she has many duties at home especially since her mother is away. She does a lot of work at home. She studies well too. And she smiles a lot. She radiates joy around her.

Whenever people speak about happiness, Sheena rushes to my mind. You don’t discover happiness, Sheena teaches me. You don’t create happiness. You are happiness. Or else you are on the wrong road.