Alka Dwivedi

Category: Happiness

  • Being Happy : Day 3

    Today I opened my eyes to immense pain in my back and legs. Again, flooding my mind with positive thoughts flew out of the window for a while. I have woken up brooding why I am having so much pain? Then I remembered that last evening I played a lot in the garden and then walked a lot. Nothing wrong in that. But I was giving a royal snub to my calcium supply (read milk). I don’t know why, but I have developed this love-hate relationship with milk for the past ten years. Earlier it was an absolute must for me, two times a day. Now its not even two times a month. And I want to remain active like Roger Federer! I am pretty sure Roger Federer doesn’t follow a diet like me.

    Another thing I realized that if I want to be happy, health is the key to that door of happiness. In fact Health is Happiness. But I know, still I won’t drink milk. No matter what. My only hope is my sister. Only she has got the power in this whole world to make me drink milk. No matter in which corner of the earth my sister resides, just a phone call from her is sufficient. 🙂 Hope, I will say goodbye to physical pain soon.

    I promised myself to be happy and do one thing that makes me happy. I promised to have fruits in our diet everyday. But how to make it a happy occasion so that my nursery going little one can enjoy that? I want my little one to develop a habit to have fruits and salads everyday just like she brushes her teeth everyday. But how to make fruit and salad eating a HAPPY experience?

    Fruits-Cartoons
    Fruits and Cartoons can exsist side by side. Happily!

    For that I will be thankful to John Logie Baird, inventor of the television and Walt Walt Disney. I out on my little ones favorite cartoon and quietly slipped the fruit’s plate. I too sat with her. After a while we both were watching cartoon, Doremon, laughing, talking and eating our snack – F-R-U-I-T. 🙂 I really had a good time with her. And she too was unaware of my intentions. 🙂 I am doing it SUCCESSFULLY for the three days. I hope to continue doing it as long as possible. WHO says TV is bad for kids? Probably we don’t know how to use it to our advantage. 🙂

    Meanwhile I also discovered that during if I want to introduce some new HEALTHY food, cartoon time is the best time. Now I am going to do away with that chips and popcorn. My little one hardly notices the difference during cartoon time. 🙂 We both were so happy.
    Having fruits while watching TV, give us time for bonding too. I was not in my usual don’t do this, don’t do that mode. We were laughing, talking and eating at the same time. Thanks Walt Disney and John L Baird from the bottom of my heart.

  • Exceed Your Limit : Being Happy, Day 2

    I know I am supposed to write about my experiment with inculcating habit of having fruits and salad on daily basis. But I find stretching my boundaries immensely satisfying and happy experience. I want to pen it down first.

    We often feel miserable when we limit ourselves by creating rigid boundaries. Sometimes we need to break free and surprise ourselves. Sometimes we have to exceed our limits set by no one but ourselves. We often feel fear that if we deviate from norms what will be in store for us?

    Our family often talks about having a pet (a dog). But I resist it fiercely. It doesn’t mean I never had a pet when I was growing up. We always have. But they are mostly rabbits or stray dogs. Stray dogs used to come to our house and settle down whichever corner they fancy. We have huge open space and lawns around our house. But now I am living in on second floor of a metro town. So my concern was dogs need space. They shouldn’t be cooped up in a flat. They should be left in open whenever they fancy.
    I often don’t like the idea of having a pet at all. I often felt fearful, what if I can’t take care of it ? What if they fall sick? What if they don’t like my place? How will I bathe them? How to keep them clean? From where to get their food? How to find time to look after pets? There were so many HOWS that were stopping me from experiencing happiness and joys of having a pet. My fears were stopping me.

    But this Sunday, we went out for a movie. We enjoyed a lot. Coming out of movie hall we spotted a pet shop. Just for the heck of it we entered and bought two guinea pigs. They were delivered to us the next day. And WOW!

    our-pets-guinea-pigs
    Source of Immense Happiness our pets guinea pigs

    i HAVE NEVER REALIZED that having a pet can bring so much joy, happiness, laughter and contentment in one go. I have never seen the youngest member of my family laughing so much. For the first time I have not seen her running towards TV at regular intervals. In fact she didn’t watch TV at all the whole day nor seem to miss her cartoons.
    I have never seen the youngest member of the family listen to elders so promptly. Whatever is good for the pets should be done. It was nice to see her sharing and caring for her pets and being concerned for their well being.
    Having a pet brings a family closer. It better than watching TV together. AT least our gazes were not fixed at some box. Whenever we get time we huddle near our pets and share so much laughter at our pets antiques. We talk so much and share so many ideas. Our little one voices her opinion too regarding to keep out pet amused and well fed. I can never thank my pets enough for this joyous familial bonding.
    I am glad that I stretched my boundaries that Sunday and bought happiness, joy, laughter, mirth, enjoyment and togetherness home,things a family is made up of, things for what a family should be known for.

  • Being Happy : Day 1

    I consciously make a choice to be happy. Today is my first day. I promised to wake up and flood my mind with positive thoughts and emotions. What happened today?

    When I woke up the first thought that crossed my mind was, “Oh! s**t! I don’t want to wake up with this intense pain in my leg and back of my thigh!” I put myself inside the quilt again. SO much for flooding my mind with blah! blah! blah! But somewhere deep within the valley of my mind that promise was rearing its head and I remembered to start my day with positive thoughts. Did I shoot out of bed and everything was alright? Hardly so.

    My first thought was I have to rush, I hardly have ten minutes for flooding my mind with positive thoughts. But somewhere I have to find a way. So I got out of bed and tried to do usual chores with positive thoughts in my mind. Initially the only feeling I was going through was pain in legs. And damn it how hard it is to concentrate on only one thing for five minutes. So my mind kept wondering in thousand directions and I have to reign it and put it back on some positive thoughts. And I struggled in search of positive thoughts too! Then I started singing a song in my head. That REALLY helped! I was able to concentrate on the song and went ahead with usual daily chores.

    After a while I realized that pain was not that intense in my legs and I can actually hum instead of grumbling and complaining. As the day progressed I forgot all about my pain. Its a dull reminder now. I sent my dear one to her daily destination with a smile. Now I am happily at my desk engrossed in my work. For tomorrow I think I will play some beautiful, soft, melodious and sweet songs on my deck that can fill the whole household with sweet gentle energy needed for the morning. So whenever I GET time I will burn a CD of my favorite songs having sweet soothing melodies.
    For tomorrow, I will try to incorporate healthy servings of fruits and salad on DAILY basis in our diet. Till now its on and often thing. But I will try to change this from now onwards. But how to make it a happy experience? My mind is blank on that front but the only consolation is I will be glad if the youngest member of my family picks it up as a habit and continue it for the rest of her life. That can be a good gift to my little one. 🙂

  • Being Happy

    Once I was thinking about time. And suddenly a thought struck me that with each passing year, month, week, day, hour and minute, we are moving away from our loved ones and from ourselves too. Even the day we are born the clock starts ticking away and reverse counting starts. With each passing day, we are nearing our final destination. But instead of making me disturbed, this thought compelled me to be happy each day. To make most of the time I have with my near and dear ones.
    I took a pledge that I will try to be happy each day. I will do at least one thing that makes me happy and content. And try to pen it down and relive it whenever I want.

    Today I thought that whenever I wake up in the morning I will flood my mind and emotions with good and positive thoughts. That might prove refreshing because I am not a morning person and wake up grouchy and grumpy. Tomorrow onwards before leaving my bed, I will try to close my eyes and visualize. I will visualize pleasant and positive things then start my day.

    Mostly what happens is I wake up in foul mood and keep quiet for a long time in the morning so that not to rub off my mood to others.Why not get rid off that foul pause and start day with bright and cheerful note? Why not be happy from the start? I don’t know how my experiment with being happy will turn out. But there is no harm in trying.
    No one has too much luxury of time on this beautiful planet to be sad, bitter, blue, cheerless, dejected, despondent, distressed and down in dumps. Why not make a conscious choice and be happy? I will CONSCIOUSLY try to do one thing everyday to be happy. Flooding my mind with positive emotions and thoughts while waking up is my promise to myself.

  • In Pursuit Of Happiness

    How the meaning of happiness differ from person to person. Millions will be so happy to settle down in heaven on earth Switzerland with a career of their choice with Euro in their purse. But not Narayanan Krishnan, CNN Hero.

    He was working as a chef in a five star hotel. All set to go to Switzerland. The ultimate Indian middle class dream to settle in a foreign land. But happiness intervened. Before setting off to Switzerland, he thought of visiting his hometown and saw a human being eating his own waste for food under a bridge. What happened then?
    “Krishnan founded his nonprofit Akshaya Trust in 2003. Now 29, he has served more than 1.2 million meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner — to India’s homeless and destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and often abused.”

    “He seeks out the homeless under bridges and in the nooks and crannies between the city’s temples. The hot meals he delivers are simple, tasty vegetarian fare he personally prepares, packs and often hand-feeds to nearly 400 clients each day.

    Krishnan carries a comb, scissors and razor and is trained in eight haircut styles that, along with a fresh shave, provide extra dignity to those he serves.”

    What about his own parents and their aspirations? “Krishnan sleeps in Akshaya’s modest kitchen with his few co-workers. Since investing his entire savings of $2,500 in 2002, he has taken no salary and subsists with the help of his once-unsupportive parents.

    “They had a lot of pain because they had spent a lot on my education,” he said. “I asked my mother, ‘Please come with me, see what I am doing.’ After coming back home, my mother said, ‘You feed all those people, the rest of the lifetime I am there, I will feed you.’ I’m living for Akshaya. My parents are taking care of me.””

    If you want to make a donation here are the necessary details: Donation

  • How To Be Happy


    What stands out in this young man was his pursuit to be happy. I don’t want to say the usual things that how inspiring this young man Dinesh Thakur is. How fortunate we are. If he can do this why can’t we? We don’t have to watch some disadvantaged person to feel if he can why can’t we.

    While watching Dinesh Thakur performing in India’s Got Talent Khoj 2 it struck to me that happiness is a state of mind and he chooses to be happy. How dedicated this young man is to do what he wants to do in life. His determination and drive is remarkable. So called normal folks hardly exhibit it. It was pleasant to know he was associated with a Jym! Folks you know how hard it is to exercise everyday!

    Although Dinesh Thakur didn’t win the India’s Got Talent Khoj 2 but in life he will keep on winning. With his determination, dedication and cheerful disposition, nothing seems impossible. He has got all the ingredients to move ahead in life.

    Do we really need designer clothes, right accessories, hip hop places to get noticed? Its true all you need is your attitude. 🙂