I always think that it is the little things that make us happy. I am trying to remember few such little things that made me incredibly happy in the last few days.
I made some carrot halwa the last weekend, with a lot of hard work which included grating seven carrots all by myself, that lasted more than two hours and was not very happy with the end results. It seemed too sweet and only tasted of carrot and milk (which it should, of course!). I had hoped it would be exceedingly delicious. I woke up the next day with an excruciating pain in my right arm extending all the way to my back thanks to the effort I had put in. I always have roommates who are not very foodie, especially not taking much of a liking to sweets. However, I was overwhelmed with the response to the halwa during our lunch on Monday at work. I had packed all that was remaining at home, and was surprised that the box was empty by the end of our break. Though most of the people who tasted it were kind enough to appreciate how great it was, the icing on the cake was that one guy who was not Indian took the trouble to learn the name so that he could look it up later and prepare it himself. I have dreamt of being able to cook and feed others happiness like my mother does and this makes me feel like I am doing all the right things. This is enough motivation for me to learn to make more delicacies and hopefully share it with as many people as possible. I wonder why a couple of them mistook the carrot for sweet potato though!
Another little thing was at work too. I and a friend took a break and were sipping some coffee seated on a bench by one of the roadways between buildings. A lady walking past us paused for a second, took a look at us and said that we looked like we were in a picture. She walked by, turned and said it is a Facebook photo right there. She said it could be used in a Cisco promo or something where people would look at it and feel like they can have a good time at work. I was grateful that a stranger thought it worth her time to tell us what she thought and make us feel good about ourselves. I am not sure about my friend who receives compliments otherwise too, but she did make my day.
I happened to watch a movie about a seven year old girl who is a child prodigy and she knows she is different. This one scene from the movie made me so happy that I could not stop feeling elated for a couple of days after. It might not be up there with the best I have seen in movies, but was moving. To give some background, the girl is raised by her uncle. Circumstances lead him to have to fight for her custody and she gets to know that her father does not think it is worth his time to meet her or to take as much as a look at her just to know how she is. Her uncle takes her to a hospital and they are waiting, seated outside the maternity ward at a distance as the scene unfolds. A couple of families of the patients inside are waiting anxiously too. He brushes aside all her queries about the purpose of their visit with ambiguous answers. She falls asleep on those chairs, but is woken up when someone comes outside to share the news of a delivery with one of the families. They are ecstatic and cannot stop sharing the joy with everybody around. He looks at her and tells her that it was exactly like that when she was born. She smiles and asks who it was that came outside to tell others about her. He says that was him. She jumps off her chair and joins them in the celebration. I thought it was the perfect way to let her know how much she was loved and how much happiness her birth had brought to her family. Describing the scene still makes me feel blissful. It brought me back to the thought that it is up to us to let our loved ones know how important they are, sometimes through words and otherwise through actions, hopefully all the time.