Happiness in the Times of De-monetization

The season of happiness seems to have many reasons to cheer even in these times of de-monetization. First, it started almost two weeks back or if one can stretch may be three months ago, with the festival season now culminating or continuing with the new year Eve, Adam and their great grandchildren. Second, the pains of ‘de-mon’ effect is waning, at least emotionally. Who doesn’t like a long spell of happy season?

The flow of happiness, of course, comes in many ways and on multiple channels. FaceBook and Whatsapp appear to be the most popular channels of the new year happiness. E-mail and SMS have lost out as mediums of happiness, much the same way the post cards and greeting cards of yester years. Since, I belong to the Boomer generation, I got a few greeting cards and less than five messages on SMS during this happy season. Even the change of medium is a reason to be happy. Sending and receiving happy messages have become ever more easy for even the dumb people with smart phones. Most of us only do smart forwards received from other smart people who have in turn got them from yet other smart friends. When we want to reply to others we have many options too depending on our mood and time at hand. We can use our own selfies, pictures, videos, images or emoji’s. Text is very sparingly and boringly used.

Here are a few things that made me happy this season.

Couple of weeks back I decided to bury my old iPhone in memory of the late Steve Jobs and bought a One Plus3 T phone. I am still learning the tricks on the new gizmo run on Android. Android brings an array of symbols previously unknown to the Steve loyalists. The reason for happiness was found when my son told me that this new phone has two sim card slots. At first I thought this may be a safety feature for a fast running engine just as a twin-engine airplane is safer than a single engine aircraft. Surely getting a phone with two SIM card slots and a host of other features (many of them I may not use in my lifetime) at less than half the price I would have paid for Mr. Cook’s new phone is a happiness enhancing thing that happened to me.

Then I heard about the ‘Happy New Year’ offer by Reliance Jio. My new phone has an empty SIM slot available and a generous billionaire is offering 4G data and calls free until 31^st March 2017. What a perfect coincidence! I went to the Reliance Digital store nearby and the subscription was hassle-free too. No paper work; no documentation. All what they wanted was my Aadhar card number and my thumb impression. Like Eklavya, I offered my thumb (albeit impression only) on the biometric platter, to the billionaire. My genetic code and personal data are now with a private billionaire. Is that scary? No. What am I going to do with my genetic code? Nothing. Rent it out and get free data and voice! For now, I am happy. I may worry about it later at leisure. But my Guruji told me that happiness is in the ‘present’. So, I accepted the new year ‘present’ from Mr. Billionaire. Unlimited free calls and all time free data even for a limited period is cause for great happiness.

I thought this was truly a good way of happiness during the new year season, when you are at the receiving end. All others or most others while wishing us ‘happy new year’ and assorted nice words, phrases, images and even poetry do not think a bit in terms of what ‘I will do for you to enhance your happiness in the new year’. The responsibility ends with a small text message or a smiley. No further expectation till next new year eve. Period.

My friend sent me a recent post that says all those who are unhappy are so for the same reasons! That was quite illuminating. In a nutshell, it says people are unhappy because they have either high expectations or wrong expectations. The corollary of that statement must also be true as well. People are happy because their expectations are low or they have the right expectations. I carry that as a take away for the new year.

What made you happy this new year season?

P.S. "Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." - Omar Khayyam