Simpler Things Greater Happiness

While running after bigger, complex and fancy things in life, we often ignore simpler things that happen to us every day. Simple things like, umm.. a cup of coffee!

Imagine yourself having a very bad day. You just had a date, with your long- time-crush cancelled. Or that you had to unwillingly travel through a muddy road on a rainy day to deliver a parcel to a long-distance-relative whom you had met while you used to run around home putting just the glasses that your dad got for you from mela, and on the way back home, you had your scooter run out of petrol. Or even worse, you had waited a whole week for your favorite TV series to air but suddenly you don’t get to watch because your dad asks you to turn on the news channel, while your friends get to watch the TV series and those cruel beings keep on flowing “the updates on the episode which happens to be the most epic part that has happened in a long time”. Worst, right? Now imagine, after experiencing such scenarios, you being served the best, home-made coffee (of course for the coffee lovers only). No wonder, your worst situation vanishes and only the best taste of the coffee remains in your heart and taste buds.

We are never thankful to the cups of coffee that surrender themselves for our refreshment. I feel fortunate for being able to have those gulps with all the pleasure. A cup of coffee with all the ingredients of your choice, and mind you, the adequate quantity of those ingredients do play a role here. Still, brace yourself, the aroma and the temperature as you would like to be served are also on the list. And ladies and gentlemen, do not miss the best part and that is, you being fortunate enough to be able to have the coffee in your favorite mug. What else would you need to experience the feel of having visited the Heaven for those amazing five-ten minutes on a daily basis?

But do we even care to mention these things ever? “No” would be the answer for most, I guess. Even I did never feel such excited about having a cup of coffee. After all, it is a routine thing, and nobody’s got a time for that. However, today afternoon I was suddenly so much animated about the cup of coffee I served myself. It was a feeling that had never occurred to me before. There was something euphoric about the simple cup of coffee I had.

Maybe it is the effect of earthquake that made me realize the importance of simpler things. Among the millions of the earthquake affected ones, my family was also one of them. The fear of bigger aftershocks or another bigger quake had shuddered our hearts. During those days, it was an act of bravery to ascend the mounted buildings and prepare something to eat. Well, needless to say, “forget about the refreshments like tea or coffee”. Tea or coffee, once regular drinks, suddenly became luxurious rewards for the braver ones. And that too, prepared with all the patience, love, balance of all the ingredients, quantity, temperature, and the aroma soon became folktales of many many years ago. No more favorite coffee mug, too. Plastic cups with no hole became the new favorite. Oh! Those were the days I missed my “cup of coffee”.

A month after the disaster, today, things are getting normal around some places. Luckily, I am also one of the lucky ones to get back to a normal life again. However, there are thousands of people who might still be missing simple things in their life. The regular stuffs, normal lifestyle. A cup of coffee holds so much significance in our life. And it is just one of many simple things that we miss to put our attention towards. The blanket that you cannot sleep without even in a hot sweating night; the towel that you are used to throwing around different corners every time you use it and place yourself in the stage of dire need every time you lose it; that pathetic, colorless and oldest t-shirt that everyone asks you to throw it away but still you don’t do it because of the emotional attachment to that piece; that fearlessly hiding behind the doors to scare your siblings but they taking ages to reach that exact place so you taking a chance and moving out from that place to pee, most probably, and suddenly they arriving at that moment and you are like “bad timing idiot!”; that spending time alone at the top floor gazing at the marvelous sky full of stars and wondering “How might the alien from another galaxy try to solve the algebra problems? Do they have five fingers or ten in a single hand?” and other similar important issues.

The earthquake has turned around our life in a different way, in the most unimaginable way. People in Nepal always dreamed of simple life, but the quake wobbled those dreams. They had nothing to lose, yet many things to lose. However, I believe their simplicity is still intact. Because it is always the simple things in life that bring so much happiness.

Written on : May 27, 2015

Published on : July 30, 2015

Photo by: Aayusa Dahal