Joie de Vivre

How grueling it is to travel in a BMTC bus! Especially when you are standing! The struggle you undergo to balance when the driver puts a sudden break, when the driver takes a U turn or when someone is pushing you off to get to the door as their stop approaches. You try your best to balance so that the neighbouring aunty doesn’t yell at you when you by chance lose your balance and stamp her foot by mistake. Uff!!! In midst of all this, an irritating conductor pushing everyone and trying to make his way to the front asking “Ticket or Pass? Go inside. There’s a lot of place”? Like as if there’s plenty of room to do gymnastics!


But today, I was lucky enough to get a seat in the bus. I sat thinking about various sad incidents of my life, how I have suffered, how I overcame and still trying to overcome a few problems and was listening to an absolutely sad song. There was so much of pain in the song which I could empathize with. It was 9 p.m. and I knew that I would get sound advice from my father after I reach home. To top it, I got caught in a railway junction. To let a single train pass, so many vehicles had to wait. How frustrating!

But as I sat waiting, I observed people around me. I saw a small boy sleeping on his Grandfather’s lap. The Grandfather was protectively hugging his Grandson so that he doesn’t fall when suddenly the bus starts. I got a sudden feeling of joy seeing that affection. Then, I saw two college going girls talking and laughing about something. I felt joyful seeing them laugh. Then, I saw an old woman wearing a red colour scarf sleeping against the closed window glass. Seeing her sleep peacefully, I got a feeling of joy.

I turned behind and saw two aunties gossiping. They were so much into the conversation that they really didn’t care about the railway junction signal. I got a sense of joy looking at them. And not to forget the girl who was sitting and talking to someone over the phone (probably her boyfriend). The train arrives and it gets noisy “Wait.. I can’t hear you. Are you there?” And as the train passes and the noise reduces, she says “Are you still there? Thank God! The train went. I can hear you clearly. Can you hear me?” I got a sense of joy when I saw the satisfaction on her face.

Now, the background sad song which I was listening to sounded joyful too. I realised that we can find joy in every small thing in life. No matter how big problem we are in. There is so much around to be happy about, to appreciate about and to feel joyful about. That is joie de vivre! The joy of living!