Rocket Science of Happiness

Farrah was behind the wheels on the morning of 29^th August taking me to Silverstone Circuit just on the skirts of Northampton-Towcester. Summer had vacated the place and Winter was moving in as the new tenant. The change of season had a metaphoric cousin in the fate of Kenya too. Farah belonged to Kenya and keen-ya he was to go back to his country that was seeing a transformation. Being a cabbie, he was used to ferry various human luggages. Some lean… more hefty, some bright… more dull, some talkative and more mute. He planted the seed of smile on his face from day one of his life as a cabbie. And this seed cross-pollinated magically to most other human luggages too. Upon asked, “Why do you wear a smile?”… his answer was extremely profound. He mentioned that there are two levels of reality which can answer this. At one level, it’s the Ubuntu Philosophy from Africa which simply means that “I am because we are”. He took this further by explaining that if people around are happy and smiling, only then it will ensure a smile for his own self. And what better way by starting to inject a smile seed oneself…that ways the smile will come back. At a different level of reality he says, “Smiling for One’s Own Self and not for Serving as an Instrument for something in return”. Theory of Justice has some interesting fundamentals about how a person goes about doing a thing and whether the thing done is intrinsic in nature or instrumental for something else. I believe happiness sure knew the address to Farah and made him a permanent accommodation.

Denver to Boulder can be a windy-deserted classic Colorado ride or be an oasis if Gamal is your navigator cabbie. For a person who hobbies astronomy and is a thinker, cabbies seems an under utilization of his talent. True Hope & Happiness are cultural packets of information fast becoming Vintage. Gamal nurtures this great idea of destroying money from this earth and creating a system where each individual is assured of some accommodation and truck-loads of opportunities. Each person can do any job on any day and swipe his man-hours. To keep the motivation, good work done (measured by the number of smiles exchanged…appreciation exchanged…and also operating metrics) and noble work done gets higher standing in society while bad performance and anti-social are dealt with intermittent isolation cum hard work. He looks at his home country Syria burning today and is smart enough to realize that the handful of leaders are running this game and everybody is laid out on the chessboard to be moved within the rules of the game. He also mentioned that since time immemorial, leaders define the quality of life for the generations, and all often than not the leaders have self-vested with vested interest. Whether the change happens on the outside doesn’t matter, on the inside his permanent co-passenger is hope and happiness.

Both Gamal & Farrah are classic example of Social Scientists who have cracked the rocket science of happiness which most of us don’t get it.

Interestingly enough it coincides with mythological and philosophical accounts too. As per Devdutt Patnaik’s beautiful render of Indra-Lakshmi-Vishnu where God Vishnu is “Happy and hence Journey” while God Indra is “Journey for Happiness”. According to contemporary thinker Allain De Botton’s account of the great philosopher Epicurus, the emphasis was on making happiness a natural sleeve and thereby pursue life.

The Rocket of Happiness is fast…contagious,
Only if one knows this Art of Science,
One need only be a Gamal or Farrah,
Surely not what big designation assigns.

They say leaders lead communities,
But Leadership is systemic…. Not always at the top… could be amidst masses,
Just turn gaze around, as Fritjof & Saint Dattatreya says,
Teachers in abundance…everything & everyone… Us Students missing Class-es.