The Happy Secret i
EDUCREATION PUBLISHING Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh - 495001 Website: www.educreation.in Copyright, 2018, Jairaj All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer. ISBN: 978-1-5457-1343-3 Price: ` 175.00 The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the author and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation. Printed in India ii
The Happy Secret 21 stories tickling your mind EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011) www.educreation.in iii
About the Author Jairaj is a HR professional with more than 11 years of experience in industries like Media, Pharma and Manufacturing. He is someone who lives in stories and strongly believes in the art of story-telling. It s the oldest art form, but still most effective. He is an avid blogger and a passionate writer who used to write on the impulse and was always appreciated for his writing by his close ones. With time his close friends and family nudged him to write a full-fledged book, and hence he embarked on this journey to write some wonderful stories which instilled his belief that "you can find your happiness in every shade, sky is the limit, just know your colour". This stories are simple experiences which lead to some wonderful learning's helping him explore the path to happiness. He is born and bought up in the giant city of Mumbai with his beloved family consisting of caring parents, beloved wife, little sister and a beautiful daughter. He is expecting this book to help some souls to look at happiness in a different light, maybe just stumble upon happiness rather than search it. Welcome happiness!!! iv
Preface As the title of my book will intrigue you, so does my mind about how the most basic thing we all require is easily available yet hardly attainable for most of us Happiness. We start our journey of life usually by crying, while spreading happiness and then slowly and unconsciously forget the simple art of being happy and spreading happiness. We forget the simple art, as we usually feel that it s too simple to be formulated or written or retained. We assume that we will continue to retain the magic of attaining happiness. It dawns to all of us too late that it is no longer that easy; in fact, it is anything but easy. It slowly starts becoming difficult as you grow in this big beautiful world where you start getting lost, and then you suddenly find yourself, discover yourself, and it gives you true happiness, but in no time at all, again you lose yourself. This rollercoaster is never ending, till the end. That s life to us. But why is happiness elusive to us, or abstract in reality. I got my answer while cooking (Yes I Cook!). v
There is an Indian dish called dosa, which is a thin white rice bread made out of rice flour fermented in water before being cooked on a pan. Now, I like making dosa once in a while, and we have many variations in dosa. For example, My mom likes cold but thick dosas, cooked in butter. My wife likes hot but thin crispy dosas, cooked in Amul butter. My dad likes any form of dosa but it should be slightly crispy, cooked in any butter. My daughter likes dosa non-crispy and loaded with butter and cheese, along with ketchup. And Finally, I like dosa with vegetables, which is called Mysore masala. What I concluded from it is that although the dish (life) is the same, we all want to add some different things in it to make it as per our liking. So, similarly, we all have one life and happiness is dear to all of us. We just need to be ready with what we want to add to it. Just like dosa, where my daughter wants to add cheese and my wife wants butter. I can draw another simple analogy to happiness being this big sphere loaded with enablers which keeps rolling to get to the core center where happiness hides. vi
Happiness enablers: Beliefs Stable mind Self-belief Patience Dream/ Vision Outlook Desire Happiness Value for things Clarity Attitude and gratitude Valuing the past Drive Out-of-box thinking Confidence All of the above enablers are required by each one of us in different proportions at varied times depending on our own definition of happiness. Yes we define our own happiness. Now, how do we define our happiness? Life matrix can be simply put in three brackets with some examples below: Doing Giving/Sharing Taking Business/ Job Watching movies Gifts Talk, lecture Gifts Money Traveling Food to poor Help Cycling News Car vii
Above are just examples of how life can be categorized into three sections namely doing/giving or sharing and taking. Any happiness you gain will surely fall into these three categories with above enablers in varied proportion. Think of an example and it will surely fit into these three categories. Any act of the above with the required enablers can give you happiness easily, for example: Taking a car, while valuing it is true happiness. Sharing food, while having gratitude is true happiness. Traveling with desire is happiness. Talking with self belief and clarity is happiness. Now, let us take a happiness test with you and understand how happy we are (answer in yes or no): 1. I get up in the morning and smile at someone 2. I wish my parents/wife before leaving home 3. I reach office/business and wish the security/peon good morning 4. I invariably have my lunch on time during working hours viii
5. I spend at least 2 3 hours daily with my family 6. I pursue at least one hobby in my schedule 7. I meet up with my friends once in a fortnight 8. I take a one holiday a year at least 9. I have a hearty laugh usually once a week 10. I usually sleep very peacefully Now out of 10, how many answers are yes? Above eight yes means that you are a happy person already. Above six yes means that you can be a happy person. Above four yes means that you have to urgently change your lifestyle. Below four means you are SAD. Now, the above grading will surely sound silly to many of you and it is actually sounding silly to me too, but why is that? It is because only few lines back I mentioned that we all define our own happiness. No one can define it for us, you might only have three yes and still be happy, who knows and who cares, being happy is all that matters. So, if you think I will give some mantra to happiness, it is actually not possible in reality as no one has it, but we all meet numerous people ix
in our life span who sparkle happiness on us and radiate positivity even in toughest of situations they are going through. While here, majority of us are only captivated by plateful of negativity leading to unnecessary stress, tension and anxiety. I keep wondering if news channel/papers can flash news of a robbery, why can t it broadcast or publish news of voluntary act of kindness and donations happening across world. If getting killed can become a news, why can t life being saved become news. The answer is simple, because we choose to, while we can choose happiness. My book here is simply exploring some random acts of kindness, belief and inspiration which will enable us to get to as close to our happiness as possible. The stories might not give you happiness instantly but will make you ponder to strive for happiness and bring a smile for sure. W x
Content List Sr. No. Content Page 1. A Click to Life 1 2. Beliefs and miracles 4 3. Michel Jackson-ing in Life 9 4. A Clear Interview 12 5. A Royal Stranger 17 6. Happily Dissatisfied 22 7. Race to Win 25 8. Dream to Move Ahead 28 9. The Outlook is What Matters 10. Crave, Want and Get It s Magical xi 34 37 11. First Love Affair 41 12. A Walk Back, the Times 47 13. Color Your Thoughts 51 14. The Possibility Map 54 15. Getting Lucky 57 16. Fear to Fear 62 17. Sachin Sachin Sachin 66 18. The Magic of Raj and Simran 70 19. It s All About Karma 74 20. A Comfortable Backseat 78 21. Celebrate Life Celebrate Moments 84
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The Happy Secret A Click to Life Camera is an interesting piece of invention; it captures the world out there and wherever or whenever we want to and however we want to capture it. However we want is the important part, it can be in black and white, sepia tone, cool filters etc. With the world becoming more complex, so are the cameras and lenses. The same picture out there is available to everyone in different filters, colors and angles, click it the way you want. The world is beautiful or I feel the world out just there is; we make it even more beautiful depending on how we feel within us. It s the lens through which we see the world out there making it beautiful/ happy/ sad/ nostalgic/ delighted and range of emotions we have within us. Mind the most important part of body, just like lens of camera, it only works well if the lens is clean, clear and maintained. We are outcome of our experiences and what we become is just about how we are able to adjust our lens to see the world and get that perfect click. 1
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