THE JOY OF LIVING: 3RD PLACE CREATIVE WRITING

                                    

When I entered my name in the list of people who would be participating in the Creative Writing competition, my close friend said, “Joy of Living! It’s a nice topic. What are you going to write about?” I said, “The topic is ‘Joy of Living’, so I’ll write about that.” My friend said, “You know it means you have to talk about the joy of ‘Living’ right?” “Yes, I know!” He said, “Prepare well, and write well.” I said, “Thanks”.

I went home and asked my dad, “I need your help in writing an article on the topic, ‘Joy of Living’.” He asked me, “What are you planning to write?” “When they spoke of the topic, they said it’s just about the joy of ‘Living’. As in living opposed to just existing”.

“Ah! So write that the joy of Living comes from waking up early in the morning, going for a jog, exercising, eating ‘little’ breakfast, and most importantly going to college on time.”

“Pa, I said Joy of Living. I didn’t ask for your source of joy,” I retorted.

After sometime as I was still wondering what to write, I thought to myself. To my dad, who is fit and fine, the joy of working out, staying healthy, and of course taunting his daughter about her size, was indeed Joy.

It was in these minute jokes and statements that he made, he found joy.

That is when I realized, it was his way of living life up. Because, this is not a once-in-a-blue-moon act that my dad plays, but it’s a routine. This is a part and parcel of his daily life. It is his way of enjoying his moments. It is his style of fun, and though my mother and I frown at his digs at us, he laughs heartily.

Living and Joy, two words that could be well complimenting to a person, and yet they could be contrasting words to another.

What does one do to ‘live’ in today’s world? By ‘live’ I don’t mean to exist, I mean to enjoy, loosening up, to rejuvenate, and simply just to refresh him/her.

This article would, when eyed with just a mind bound by chains of work, stress and duties, not look beautiful but look at it with an open heart. It is a joy to live, or even to exist in such a world.

To experience the beauty of this world, one has to ‘LIVE’ and not just ‘live’.

And to ‘LIVE’, one must not only work hard, but also enjoy.

One must see the good in even the worst situations. “And how should that happen?” you may ask.

A simple example- The other day, a friend of mine and I were going through the busy streets of Bangalore for some work. We had to ask for directions every few minutes to get to the right place. The roads were narrow and not to forget buried in dirt and covered with potholes. My friend said, “Just imagine how people live in this area. They have practically grown up here. And still look at them, sitting happily, doing their chores, without getting affected by any of this. We must seriously be thankful to God to have given us something that is so much better than this.”

That is how life goes. With what one has, one can never be satisfied and we always desire for more. But one look at their lives and you realise how much fun you have missed out in your life, cribbing for more.

I must say this was one point that made me realize the essence of the life I have got. Not everybody is lucky enough to get this life.

The life that you have got is precious and it is not given to you, for you to crib about every minute.

There is joy in everything that takes place around you. You just cease to notice it.

Living by itself is Joy. Living for your parents is Joy, living with parents is joy; living a life with friends, family, soul mate, siblings, pet, strangers, enemies all fitted into one piece is nothing but Joy.

But how does one “LIVE”? Like it’s mentioned above, everything has something joyous about it which people cease to notice.

To “LIVE”, one needs to think positively, be optimistic and enjoy any work given to them.

Enjoy every bit of work, play, time and you will LIVE your life. This way not only do you enjoy life but you can learn better.

So the next time there is something tough in front of you, think, “Oh! How fun to do this! It’s tough, so it’ll need hard work, which means, if I can complete it I’ll get praised! Wow! Isn’t that fun?”

VARSHA VARDHARAJAN