Live the moment

Just saw the above photograph posted by someone in a Facebook group of which I am a member too! As is said , “ a picture is worth a thousand words”. The above picture shook me to the core of my heart. The boy has used his chappal as a prop for mobile phone with camera to click a selfie with his other innocent friends. The picture immediately transported me back to my early childhood when all our desires used to get fulfilled by use of props as our parents could not afford any of the expensive reals. The chopper that was used for washing clothes when washing machines were unheard of would double up as a cricket bat ! A 25 p non working plastic watch would adorn my wrist, being displayed with pride.

As a small boy, I was extremely fond of toys such as mini bus, truck or car. It was difficult for my parents to buy such toys as they were expensive by our economic standards. I distinctly remember making a bus out of an empty shoe box or any other solid cube having 3 dimensions would be my car or truck! I also remember my father having actually bought me a pick up truck toy on my 7th birthday that I used for years though it’s wheels and body crumbled under its excess exploitation!

In contrast, children of today belonging to affluent families have expensive phones, watches, shoes, toys at their beck and call and they hardly value them. What was a childhood dream and a pure aspiration of yore is taken for granted today! But in these days of Corona, when lockdown is providing people lot of time to take stock of their lives, it’s pictures like the above that remind you of the fact that happiness is not a function of what you have what you don’t but how you enjoy whatever you have and live the moment. We waste our lifetime running after material possessions – the joy provided by that prop of an empty cardboard box doubling up as a toy car was several notches above the joy of actually possessing a luxury sedan!

As Mahatria would say: “

Contentment is your ability to look back the past with no regrets. You should be happy with what you have. It does not stop you from being ambitious about your future. Contentment is a result and effect that is born from the past. Ambition is a futuristic emotion.

One of the takeaways from the current Corona pandemic is – let’s live the moment and be happy with whatever we have for now we have learnt that it’s completely unknown when a crisis will bring everything to a standstill. The children in the photograph are superb interpretation of Mahatria’s thoughts.