SHORT STORIES ON HAPPINESS

How do different people experience happiness?

For fifteen years, Rajesh worked in a private bank in Mumbai. His salary was generous, his apartment comfortable, and his weekends were filled with brunches and travel plans. But something gnawed at him quietly: a sense that his work, though profitable, lacked purpose.

Each day, he handled lakhs of rupees. But one evening, during a visit to his village in Jharkhand, he sat in on a local school’s community session. The children were bright-eyed, full of questions, but had no full-time teachers. On a whim, he volunteered to teach for a week—and everything changed.

He told me later, “In the bank, I counted money. But here, in the school, I count lives changed. And those numbers stay with you.”

Today, Rajesh runs a grassroots learning initiative in rural Jharkhand, teaching math and science in local dialects and mentoring young teachers. His life may not be luxurious—but it is full. His story reminds us that success doesn’t have to climb a ladder. Sometimes it steps sideways—into meaning.

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🧭 Relief Volunteer in Kashmir

During a devastating flood in Kashmir, I met a 19-year-old boy named Saif. He wasn’t from any NGO. He had no formal training. But he had strapped together a raft made of plastic drums and was rowing across submerged streets, delivering packets of dal, rice, and medicine.

He had been doing this for days, sleeping on the floor of a damaged mosque, wet and exhausted. I asked him, “Why don’t you go back home to your family in Delhi?”

He smiled gently and said, “This is home. As long as someone needs help, I’m exactly where I belong.”

That sentence struck deep. Saif didn’t find happiness in comfort—he found it in belonging through purpose. He didn’t wait for peace to be restored before acting with love. He created it, one act at a time.

His story reminds us that true happiness often lives where we give ourselves fully, not where we feel safe.

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🚖 Rickshaw Driver in Delhi

One evening in Delhi, caught in traffic near Connaught Place, I sat in the back of a rickshaw with my eyes glued to my phone, frustrated and exhausted. The driver, an older man in his 50s, glanced at me through the mirror and said, “Aap thak gaye lagte hain, sahib.”

I nodded. “Long day,” I muttered.

He laughed and replied, “Dilli ki sadkein aur zindagi dono ek jaise hain—bheed hai, dhakka hai, lekin har roz kuch naya milta hai.”

(“Delhi’s roads and life are the same—crowded, chaotic, but full of new surprises each day.”)

In that moment, my entire mood shifted. This man, navigating potholes and honking cars every day, didn’t complain. He found poetry in the mess, and patience in the traffic.

His wisdom was simple but profound: your mindset makes the journey bearable—or beautiful. Perspective, not perfection, is what makes happiness possible, even in the chaos.