Enjoying your life does not always mean doing what you are fond of doing; in fact when you really do something different that’s what makes you feel the happiest in life. But doing something different does not mean, doing something that is harmful to you or someone else.
These days, many find life boring and indulge in visiting pubs and malls, smoking and drinking, mall-hopping, seeing movies and other meaningless activities, which are not worth it, for they don’t bring any meaning and real value to life.
Instead, when you bring a smile on someone’s face with what you do selflessly, you really feel a lot of joy and happiness comes automatically.
You can help the poor – give clothes to someone who doesn’t have any, help someone to cross the road even if it is not the route you are taking, or you are getting late to go for an important work of yours, take care of a person’s health condition, feed a homeless person with your own hands, give some love and affection and make them feel that they are loved too.
If you are an animal lover, then you can take care of an animal on the streets, or volunteer at dog shelters.
You can pick up the garbage that is on the street and throw it in a bin, without thinking “why should I pick it up, I didn’t throw it there” because with that small deed you are making a really big change around you by keeping your environment clean. You can plant saplings around your neighbourhood and take care of them till they grow into trees. If you are not able to this by yourself, you can enroll into a nature-loving group and participate in their greening drives.
Never give up on the good decisions you have made, even when people around you may not come to you and say that you are really doing a great job. People do observe a lot when you do something useful. The best way to work is not to expect anything from anybody but just keep on doing it, for, the best reward is personal satisfaction. We are enjoying the fruits of hard work of many before us, and it is time to pay it forward with small good deeds, if possible without letting anyone know about them.
We should learn to find happiness within us by making others happy, and thus make each minute of our life truly enjoyable.
Pallavi Dumblekar
Very interesting and practical advice to be followed to be content and happy in life. The 3rd paragraph of the article ” when you bring a smile on somebody’s face with what you do selflessly, you really feel a lot of joy and happiness comes automatically”, which is the real prescription to be happy in life. Personally speaking, from the very early part of my life, I never had any dream to be rich; and cheerfully washed the wounds of the neighbors before going to school; and their smile of joy made me very happy. Even today, when I feel… Read more »
Nice one. At preset I am stationed deep in the desert of Oman. Often a question flash my mind “What is the meaning of life? Birth, education, job, marriage, retire and gone from this world. After reading this article, I am feeling there are more ways to explore to find happiness and meaning of life. Thanks a lot keeping my spirit up.
Thanks Mr. Felix and Mr. Mathews, for those encouraging responses to my daughter Pallavi’s article. I am happy that there are many who agree to what she has said.
Life will be better off when we give up our attachment to materialistic things and instead focus on making others happy with whatever little we can.
Good to see your article and read it. I am amazed at your thinking, very few in this world get such as thoughts at such early age. I felt a very experienced old person speaking with all his/her world experience. Today, indeed people like you are required to get this world out of misery that we have created for ourselves with religion, war, ideologies and what not. God bless. Continue to do what you are doing.
Dear Ms. Pallavi Dumblekar, I read your article and I liked it very much. Please write regularly and express your thoughts. Different people have different views and opinions of how they should lead their lives. Despite the high growth rate of our economy, the per capita income is just hovering at or around US $ 7,000/- and we have a few extremely rich people at one end of the scale and hundreds of millions are living in poverty and do not know where their next meal will come from. In short, there are acute disparities in wealth, which is not… Read more »
Despite the high growth rate of our economy, the per capita income is just hovering at or around US $ 7,000/-….. – Mr. Nelson Sir, first of all – pl. clarify if you are referring to the following in the context of India. 1. Is the figure in USD (which i assume is what you meant) the per capita income of India? If so, please provide some references. 2. The grossly inflated figure above – is it in terms of PPP? (Oh, for the uninitiated – PPP stands for ‘Purchasing Power Parity’). 3. Whatever your figures stand for – WHY… Read more »
Mr. Praveen,
I have erred. As per the latest figures, India’s per capita income is in between US $ 1,600 to US $ 1,700. Through an oversight I have mentioned it as US $ 7,000.
Please excuse me for this goof up. Alexander Pope said that, “To err is human. To forgive is ddivine.”
Regards,
Nelson Lewis
Please excuse me for this goof up. Alexander Pope said that, “To err is human. To forgive is divine.” – Mr. Nelson Sir, not a problem at all. All of us err at times. I have.. and I do.. and as sure as I’m breathing, I will continue to do so. So, no issues at all. If and whenever I err, I hope somebody will point it out and I will always continue to be gracious enough to accept stuff and be open to correction. But then, some others err precisely to the point of fault (case in example –… Read more »
Well written Pallavi. I totally agree with whatever you have said. The big problem in our India is if you pick up the garbage and throw it in the dust bin people around will laugh at you. Such is the mentality of we Indians.
Dear Ms. Deepa Dumblekar: Your graceful note of thanks is greatly appreciated. Pallavi at this age writing such an article has profound spiritual insight and focusing in life; and indeed the Creator is looking for certain people like her to be used in transforming the society which is caught up in the miserable life of pure materialism. Well, another very interesting thing is to read the very familiar and popular names in the comments column like Nelson Lewis-Felix-Gurudath-Praveen and Ramachandra Shetty; we all know each other through writing comments in the Karnataka publications like Mangalorean and Daijiworld; which itself shows… Read more »