The ultimate pursuit

They say that when you die, nothing matters anymore. Your possessions, your titles, your debts, your legacy, etc. Nothing. In fact, they did a study on this subject and asked deathbed-ridden people—belonging to different backgrounds—what was running through their head. To make matters interesting, a majority of them surrendered the most childish of replies. One emaciated gentleman even said, "I miss the taste of the soup my aunt made for me..." before adding, "I don't even remember the taste!" And he wasn't the only one who made startling but heartwarming confessions about what really mattered to them when they were inches away from a graveyard. 

Which brings us to the questions: What is it that humans pursue? Freedom? Happiness? Peace? Or everything? 

Freedom is something you gain for yourself. Happiness is something you offer others. Peace is something of a personal secret between you and others. 

So what exactly is it? 

If we presume that it's happiness, then why is it so fragmented and prone to change? Why doesn't it stay the way it once was? Or is it so because we tend to place our onus of happiness on others more than ourselves? If so, will we change? If not, how long before we do? People are unhappy everywhere. It's like the greatest pandemic of all time. Never before have so many been unhappy simultaneously. And this despite the bloom of so-called modernity and broadmindedness. Kids are unhappy and so are their parents. Couples—both married as well as unmarried—are dangling in the flux state of ecstasy and depression. Elders are unhappy for reasons best known to nostalgia. People—both online as well as offline—are stuck in a sad mela of their own although they might either shy away from admitting it or pretend to be too busy to even acknowledge it.

This is what i believe.

There is an equal amount of sadness for everyone around us. All human, irrespective of their physical or mental differences. Everybody is sad equally. The amount of sadness you have in your life—believe it or not—equals the amount of sadness in Angelina Jolie's life. Or for that matter, Bill Gates's. Everybody is sad in their own sour way. Even the guy with an eight-inch jumbopenis is bound to as sad as the one with a five-incher. Do you hear that? That's a sigh of relief. I don't know about you but i feel great about my theory. 

Wait.

But there's a twist in the tale: the amount of happiness isn't equal for all. A Shah Rukh Khan or a Lady Gaga could very well be happier than you or me. The same could be true about that colleague you don't like in spite of several attempts. Even that liftman you didn't give Diwali bakshish to. Yeah, the universe is unfair but it's not cruel. There's a caveat in everything it does or doesn't do. Equal sadness for all but we've got to toil for our share of happiness. In order to crack this code, first decide what are you unhappy about. Is it because of the things you have or because of the things you don't? Once you do that, it'd be much easier to be sad. Or happy. Depending on what you're really pursuing.