An exuberant, cheerful crowd gather on a sunny beach somewhere in the Tropics. They are from different walks of life, different ages, different races, yet they have one thing in common: an unbridled sense of happiness. Upbeat salsa music starts playing, and the dancers begin pulsating to the beat, showing off their flamboyant moves. The bright blue sea is nearby and their beautifully tanned skin is radiating the energy of youth. A charismatic singer stands up on the stage and begins singing:
All those who think life is unfair need to know that life is not like that. Life is beautiful, and that is must be lived to the fullest. Ayyy! There is no need to cry. Life is a carnival, and it is better to live it singing & dancing.
Thousands of miles away, in a small town in semi-rural India, an elderly couple wake up at 5.00AM in the morning. They are now in their late seventies, and live by themselves. The man wakes up first, and makes himself and his wife a cup of tea, and then proceeds to read the newspaper. His wife wakes up a few moments later. She proceeds to take her shower, prepare breakfast, and say her prayers. Her husband soon follows after a session of yoga. Finally, the couple begins their day which invariably consists of:
- buying groceries & cooking their meals
- taking their multifarious medications
- reading the newspaper & watching the news
- throughout the day, their various limbs will ache. age has caught up.
- often, there will be a power-cut, and the couple will be left in the suffocating Indian summer heat, or the biting cold with little insulation.
- and promptly heading to bed at 10.00PM, to repeat it all again tomorrow
They have been living like this with little variation for almost 20 years. The weather changes; yet their routine doesn’t. Seems a bit…? What’s the word? Depressing. Yes, that’s it.
The couple are my grandparents. Yet despite all odds, they are just like the dancers on that sandy, sunny tropical beach. How?
One day, on a phone call, I asked them bluntly, “Don’t you get depressed?” My grandmother, a strong woman, confidently replied,
“We have every reason to be depressed, but we don’t let ourselves.”
Sounds deceptively simple. And that’s how they’re just like those youthful, happy dancers on the beach somewhere in the Tropics.
Still a bit cryptic? Well, the singer expressed the mood of the dancers perfectly: “Life is a carnival, and it MUST be lived singing and dancing.”
My grandmother said something similar: “We don’t LET ourselves get depressed.”
What those two statements share in common is that both the singer and my grandmother put themselves in the driving seat of their state of being. They both decided that happiness is a state that one can consciously choose to be in every day one wakes up. And that’s the thought I want to leave you with.
This post is dedicated to all those who find themselves at low points in their lives. Happiness is inside you. Choose to be happy, and never forget: Life is a Carnival!
Fun fact: the salsa song in question is “La Vida Es Un Carnaval” by Celia Cruz and has become one of the anthems of Latin America. It is to be expected at any salsa party. Here’s a link to the original video with English translation (just click on the Closed Captions to display the subtitles).