What is this weird thing called happiness?

I think it is one of the strangest things. Different things make people happy. Good things, bad things, just… things! What makes you happy? What’s the first thing that comes to mind? A loved one? Food? Travel? Music? Parties/nightmares? If everyone knows what makes them happy then why isn’t everyone happy all the time?

So it looks like we might be happy already but just don’t know it yet because we are too busy looking for more happiness. I’ve been thinking about the things that make me happy.

Here’s a song to go with the pictures!

My best friends

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Music

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Travelling

Beer

The universe works in mysterious ways. I helped a poor person the other day. No big deal. She didn’t say a word though. Just as I was about to leave she looked at me and smiled. It was not just any smile.

It was a smile that I will never forget.

It made me feel that my messed up life has some sort of purpose.

It said “Thank you for making me happy”.

It did something incredible.

It made me super HAPPY. I’ve never been super happy before.

But then that’s just me.

In order to be happy you have to first find out what happiness is for you. Then run to it.

The universe did it again

Something incredible happened to me today. Here’s the short version:

I stepped outside the house and made friends.

That’s right. I left the comforts of my cozy apartment with its “high speed” internet and everything to wander about aimlessly through the streets.

Why is “me stepping outside the house” a big deal?

This is super embarrassing but it is also the truth. I broke up with my girlfriend a few weeks ago. Since then I have confined myself to my apartment. No travelling, no music, no outdoor stuff, no talking, no nothing. Everyday, I would leave for work, come back, watch videos on YouTube and go to bed when my back started to hurt. I kept asking myself – Why did you do it you looser? Actually the voice in my head used many more expletives which I will not be revealing here as this is a children-friendly blog after all(unfuckingbelievable). I’m sure you’ve heard/done all this before but for a person like me who is not very social as it is, this isolation was at an extreme level. I hated everything and everybody. I became super productive at work though. Don’t know how the hell that happened!

So on Saturday I decided to end this misery. I called up two of my friends who I haven’t talked to in a while and planned to go watch a movie the next day. Then I did the unthinkable. I stepped outside. While I sat on the sidewalk eating, a girl came sat next to me. We started to talk. The conversation went well, marked by surprised shouts of “Oh you’re from the south? me too!” “No way! You like shawarma too?” “Oh shit! you’re a hooker?” wait… the last one may have been just a question in my mind. Anyway… she had incredible stories to tell and she was also unbelievably honest.

While walking I saw a couple with their little girl. Their accent sounded familiar. So I talked to them. Fast forward a few minutes. I find myself sitting on their couch watching a movie with them, their two year old sitting on top of my head. I had actually made friends. Incredible! Then I went for a long walk. On the way, I met a couple of guys playing football. They saw me staring at them and asked if I wanted to join.

It was like the universe had a board meeting regarding my pathetic condition. This is probably how the meeting went:

Alright listen up. Looks like this looser is going to kill himself if he goes on like this. Lets try giving him some friends. That’ll work! And just so that he wouldn’t get too happy, lets make him move. The funny thing is that I know for sure that I will not speak to or see these people again! However, it was nice to feel normal for a single day.

High five universe!

Just when you thought you’ve seen all the cool stuff on the internet:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

Time

Time is one of the most precious things in the world

Time will heal

Time IS money

blah blah blah. If it’s so important then why do we still waste it? Why do we waste time staring at the stars? Wait, what? You don’t? There’s something wrong with you dude. Get the fuck out of my blog after hitting the like button.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like to waste time (I keep telling myself that). Before I do anything I ask myself, “is this going to be productive?”. And yet I find myself wasting a lot of time doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. I am a pro at that. Sometimes I sit alone and think. And when I think, time(for me) flies. I don’t understand how time can just speed up for me while it stays the same for others. What’s worse is that the damn thing slows down whenever I want it to speed up. So let me get this straight. Time speeds up whenever I do something I like and slows down whenever I do something I hate. Thanks a lot, life.

I guess its all about individual perception. One “feels” the passage of time depending on “how” one decides to spend it. There you have it. I have just given you the key to immortality. You are welcome. And all it took was just a few YouTube videos.

Okay. What if I constantly keep doing things that I like? (strictly hypothetical). Everyday I would wake up and go back to bed with no clue about where all the time went. Hours, days, months would pass by so quickly that I would loose track of time. One fine morning I would wake up and wonder what happened to my life. That’s scary!

Enjoy these comics too!

Random adventure

Why upload pictures here? I hate “Facebook”.

Back to Kerala

Kerala’s heavy metal crowd! Pooram Festival.

Music in my head

I can relate to this song in so many ways. So it feels like this song was a gift.

What’s the next step?

Let me first make one thing clear. I love space. I am fascinated by it and I can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe its because I feel like I don’t belong here. Any way… in spite of my fascination with the unknown, I don’t know anything about it! I haven’t read any books about it nor have I tried to study it. All the information I’ve gathered is from watching scientists talk on YouTube.

What intrigues me is the general public’s disinterest in space and space exploration. If you go up to a person on the road and ask him what he thinks about space and the importance of space exploration, this is probably the answer you would get-“There’s a sun and planets revolve around it. We have a moon going around us too. No one really knows for sure what goes on out there. We’ve got more problems here on Earth to deal with”. And I totally agree with this. We’ve got a hell of a lot problems here. There is suffering, pain, injustice, torture, climate change, overpopulation, poverty, unemployment, crime, disease, etc. They are all very worrisome. A normal person would ask why the hell should we spend money and put in effort for space exploration if it has no guaranteed results? Instead, why don’t we solve the problems here on Earth that might have practical solutions?

I’ve asked myself these questions several times. There are fundamental questions that each and every one of us have in our minds. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? From what I understand, the answers to these questions lie out there in space. I don’t think meditation is going to give us the answer! The amazing thing is that we make discoveries all along the way. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. You will be amazed to see how space exploration has indirectly affected our lives. Most of the technology that we use on a daily basis have been developed based on the research undertaken for space exploration. Read about it here.

It is said that life began in water. Then it moved onto land. It started to crawl, walk , hell! it even began to fly! That’s all good. Here’s what’s bothers me though. What if the fish never left the water? What if the aquatic animals decided to better their living conditions rather than trying to move into land? How different would the world be? Are we still fish in a pond and just don’t realize it yet? What if the next step in evolution is out there in space?

We’ve been told in science class that we live on a planet that revolves around the sun. We’ve also been told that planets, stars and other celestial bodies are “moving” in space. I accepted all these things because I was child. But I never stopped thinking about it. Just “floating” in space wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to know how and why. What surprises me is that everyone else in my class was fine with this vague explanation. Not me. I don’t understand how people can just blindly believe what they are taught in class and not want to know more about it. How can one not be curious about the cosmos?

This is why I admire travellers. I think they follow the gut instinct without any hesitation. They work hard to experience the unknown. They have no boundaries. They are the real explorers. Can you believe that there are people willing to take one-way trips to outer space? Curiosity has no limits. Curiosity rules!

 

Trip to Buddhist Temple

The epic adventure begins after I purchase the ticket to enlightenment (in this case a coin).

I arrived at the temple with a feeling of accomplishment. I had used nothing but google maps to get there. As I walked towards the temple I heard the sound of bells ringing. There was a “templish” smell in the air. In my mind, I am thinking about making friends with the good old monks and maybe even do some quiet and peaceful meditation with them. When I get there I see these huge magnificent doors. Only problem- they were closed. It was past the temples opening hours. I requested the security guard to give me a peak into the temple but he was quite stern. So I was banned from entering the temple. Tis the season of bans after all.

Sorry if you came here expecting to see pictures of a Buddhist temple. Life’s not fair. Yeah that’s right. Not to get too philosophical but “The light at the end of the tunnel” gets switched off sometimes for maintenance. But there still is a light and I will visit it some other time. Have an enlightening week. That’s too much usage of the word “light”. Damn the Illuminati. Here are some pictures I took on my way back.

 

 

 

This last picture was not easy to take. It is the one and only picture that was taken during the creation of the universe. Wonder why the creator is wearing a helmet.