The train chugged along and despite night having fallen long back, I continued to gaze out of the window. "You can't possibly see much, so why not stop peering outside?" said a friend doing the Rajdhani ride with me. I was just making a simple wish, I informed him loftily. Just wishing that the sun was shining outside. That's all, he smiled. And that it was a beautiful morning. And that there was snow outside, I continued. He began to look more than a little harassed. And that the train was travelling through Europe.You don't ask for much, do you, he quipped. Had I asked for more? Maybe asking all of it at one time was asking for a bit too much but these were just plain wishes. Mangta hai may have been just another show on television but to many it is an attitude to life. "Haven't you ever heard of the C word?" he questioned. I had heard of many other words but the meaning of this C word had me at sea.Contentment, I was told. Being happy with what you have, spreading out your feet according to your chaddar. All those ideas that were doled out by well-meaning elders and friends. Oh yes, as far as words go, contentment was the "big one." They (all those Theys who say all those things that you hear about all your life) say contentment is a virtue aspired by all, acquired by some. A state of mind involving absolute bliss. Remember all those tales?That you can have all the money in the world but it can't buy you happiness: all Theyspeak. But seriously, the story about the king with the world at his feet being unhappier than the pauper without a shirt on his back might have rung true in earlier times. Now, it's like another of Grimm's fairytales.Somehow the whole idea has always struck me as intriguing. Can you imagine what would happen ultimately if all the people in the world - whether rich or poor - were satisfied with their lot? Happy to have "more" if it came their way, but not desperately seeking it. Imagine seeking your happiness by trying to limit your desires, instead of fulfilling them. For isn't that what contentment is all about? A satisfied, at peace mind.Perhaps to many it would seem the ideal way of living. To me, it seems a very strange path to choose. Th-ink about it: no demands, no wants, no desires. No spirit of competition. No wanting to do better. For you are content with what you have, where you are, as you are. Is that what "being in bliss" means? Perhaps contentment is another name for laziness. Where the mind doesn't have to think of things to do, to work at. Is content. To be. Period.And perhaps if there were no better states, each would be happy - no, content - with his own. But since there are, and always will be, better states to dream of, it seems criminal to stop wanting. For that limiting mindset gets you nowhere. It just tells you to be happy, without showing you how to. Tells you to live life as it comes, not as you want to live it. Teaches you to set up absurd estimates of happiness and expects you to follow them.What would life be without a tomorrow? Without the future? It would be limited to just here, now, today. This moment. To put it plainly, it would be just an existence. A boring one. And whatever is wrong in Yeh dil maange more? In reaching for the stars? You might not get them. Maybe unhappy, but you just might end up with a handful of stardust.Sitting by that Rajdhani window, I think I succeeded in getting my point across. At least I hoped so. That was when the attendants wheeled in the dinner trolley. Chhole and chawal, I despaired. This time my friend did not blink when I said, "I wish this was Chinese food." "Followed by a chocolate truffle pastry," he added.
