Happy Be

Happy be, on the weary sea

     Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven.

Happy whoso has risen, free,

     Above his striving. For strangely graven

Is the art of life that one and another

     In gold and power may outpass his brother.

.

.

.

But whoever can know,

     As the long days go,

That to Live is happy, hath found his Heaven!

- The Bacchae (Professor Gilbert Murray's Translation)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Bacchae is a greek tragedy based on the mythical story of how King Pentheus is punished by god Dionysius because the king refuses to worship the god. The play was originally written by Euripides.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Young Dennis loves sitting on the porch of the children's home he has been living since the first months of his life. He was a just born baby when his unknown mother threw him on a rail track and ran away. Before the train could crush him to death, a ferocious madman took the baby off the track and started biting his delicate legs. He still has those bite marks on his legs. Somehow a kind man happened to see this gruesome scene, chased away the madman and rescued the baby. The little one finally landed up in this place which, to people of the urban upbringing, would look like a dungeon of sorts. Well, this place is his only haven. While others might yew at their kitchen, flies, stinking toilet and the bugged-beds, he is a happy kid.

A gentle priest named him Dennis, not knowing the name originated from Dionysus, the Greek god of the grape harvest, wine and merriment. While both of their births have parallels, the mortal Dennis would certainly not want his life to be filled with the merriment Dionysus symbolizes. Because deep down, he knows that his mother was a slut in her secret life - and all that he goes through, as a child, is because someday after a wild party his probably unmarried mother possibly got drunk too much and certainly had sex with some stranger who turned out to be his father.

Dennis is 15 years old now. Goes to the government school. A topper, of course. And he very well understands who he is, though the nuns at the home have carefully not taught him to believe that he is an orphan. From the time the old watchman told him of the story of how he came to this orphanage, he is overcome with depressing thoughts and feels extremely bitter for his bastardized life. He would think that it would have been better had he not been born. 'It would have been better had I been destroyed in my promiscuous mother's womb', he weeps in silence.

But he is always happy, when he sits on the porch. What makes him happy? - I wanted to know. He would just smile and his face would gleam - free of all the worries he was getting used to. I noticed he was looking at something. I followed his line of sight and there I saw what made him happy. There was a pair of anthills and hundreds of ants marching up and down in strict order. I struck a conversation with him. He has been observing these ants and their behavior for at least two months. He would not allow anyone to break the colonies the ants have so strivingly built. I listen to all the stories he tells me about these ants. Such innocence in every word, and yes - the boy's heart was bubbling with happiness.

As I returned home, I was wondering how could a little boy with whom life had been so cruel find happiness in simple things. Simple things. Oh yes - SIMPLE THINGS. Ah, there it hammered on me. To find happiness, one need not wait till the rapture and the trumpet sound. We could all find bundles of happiness in the simple things life offers us every single day. We would just have to keep our eyes open to see them. God is so great that he has injected so much happiness into all that surrounds us. Without remorse, we need to just go and inherit them. This realization started to change my life. Now - I have reached a point where I can just sit in front of my computer and smile at all the quirks it makes at me. I have started to look at people in the way they ought to be looked; and have made friends with myself. My mind is in complete sync with my heart. Believe me, there is nothing as peaceful as this. You would just have to hum to life's happy tunes and make some loverly moves. The more you smile, the more life becomes paradise. There truly is no greater secret than this. May you be happy all the time!

"Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

[Proverbs 6:6]