This blog is special as I would like to dedicate this to my best friend and brother, someone who is always there for me all the time, Parth on his birthday today. Parth, I wish you a wonderful day. As I was writing this blog I was thinking of you and the fun times we have been goofing around, when we have been together whether we have been at home, outside or at social gatherings.

Last week while we were traveling and I noticed a bunch of kids playing on the streets. They hardly had much is what I could see from my normal eyes, but what I noticed was they were playing and having fun and they had something beyond what I could possibly do, which was being satisfied with what they had and unconditional love and joy.

The main thing that I saw is that there were 3 or 4 kids playing and soon they became more than 10 kids and without much effort and thinking they all were playing together and having a great time. This reminded me of something that my dad always says, “Live in the present, not in the past or future. This proved that life is free-flowing, where nothing is planned, but it is filled with tons of joy if we know how to extract it. This has got me thinking for the past week. What would life be for me if I had no television, laptop or video games? Everything we do has tons of conditions attached to it? It sounds philosophical but I could not stop thinking about this and this has made me look deeper beyond what we see in the normal course of the event. Let me share some of my experiences.

We were out after dinner and found out that they recently opened a Cold Stone here. While waiting for our turn I was thinking how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy Ice cream and other such treats and the people behind the counter are having to serve us. Then all of a sudden the guys serving the ice cream started throwing the ice cream like a baseball. They literally started to pitch the ice cream from a distance using the cup as a baseball mitt to catch. While the ice cream was nice and I enjoyed it, it seemed that they were having more fun by serving it than I was by eating it. The next day we went to the zoo and while walking back to the exit, we were approached by some kids wanting to sell us bubbles. Both my Dad and I were puzzled as to what to do, and out of the blue, we decided to buy a set of bubbles from each of the kids. We asked my sister to gift the bubbles to other kids. The kids appreciated this small action, more so the parents also gave a warm welcome and the look on their faces said it all.

How one can transform any event or moment into something so joyful? We sometimes think that people who have little may not have a lot to give or share. What I have discovered is those who have little luxuries are the most carefree and possibly that is why it is easiest for them to give more and extract the most joy from the smallest in things. I feel at times, I get lost in protecting worrying about things more than I should. Here people have little technology at home, which may be the reason why naturally people are habituated to engage more socially. Well, I do not yet what it is, but I know that whoever I go visit in a matter of moments we start playing cards, cricket, or other activities and I love every moment of it. Parth, I love you and wish you a joyful birthday.