“I have always differentiated sadness from happiness on this basic criteria ― sadness means shrinking and happiness means expanding. Because the universe is constantly expanding so if there’s anything that is mighty and endless, it’s because it’s always expanding. But I’d not deny the fact that I’ve also learned that there’s no exact definition of happiness and sadness. And there shouldn’t be. I’ve seen people who’re happy, who look happy but they feel as if they are shrinking. And I’ve also seen people expanding in their sadness. So basically, you’d meet people who carry towns, people, miseries, stars and the whole universe inside themselves and you’d not be able to point your finger at their chest at any instant of time and tell if the universe within them is constantly shrinking or expanding because that’s how it is and that’s how it should be. I don’t know but forty or forty-five years from now, I’d love to sit on a rocking chair and tell my grandchildren that I’ve met people who bloomed in their sadness and who never got tired of looking up and down, right and left, here and there and most importantly, inside themselves in search of their happiness. People who carried collapsed towns, dead people, tragedies but were really happy and made others happy. And I’d like to tell them that I’ve been one of them. That I’ve always been the person of my dreams.”

By:

Ardina Bajpai

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