Rolling Dice

Few dots on the cube,

Make our steps crude;

The winner takes it all,

Is what our minds recall.

Keep throwing the dice,

And run like mice;

Everyone knows it's a rat race,

So just have to keep the pace.

Sometimes it rolls wrong,

And we blame it on the fate;

But sometimes it rolls right

Then it is a trick of the hand?

The road has snakes,

The road has ladders too;

The snakes will bite,

And the ladder will take us to heights.

Be afraid of the snakes,

And the ladders will never come;

So roll the dice away,

And embrace the risk per se.

Chasing Happiness

Many had questioned about a recent survey in India, which found Indians to be the happiest and at the same time stressed in their lives. It is said that "happiness" and "stress" are two contradictory emotions that can't come together. But it can.

The happiness felt in a happy moment is directly proportionate to the effort put in pursuing it. As the physical and mental labor increases, an invisible chasm builds in to distance one from accepting happiness easily. Hence there remains no room for taking that moment, when all the labor has borne fruit, for granted as you have earned it. That blissful moment brings a sense of freedom and achievement that makes one pat one's own back saying "Yes I can." And the taste of that hard-earned bliss compels one to take another stressful road for another accomplishment as no easy route can bring in that sense of exhilaration. While they are happy in their lives for all the accomplishments they have had through continuous perseverance, they are stressed being on the road to accomplish further.

Marketing execs who are expected to connect on a deeper level are found using this concept to their products too. For instance, chocolate was always portrayed as an object to pleasure the sweet tongue, but today it is depicted as a valuable bliss which must be pursued and earned and not merely bought. Thomas Jefferson had rightly said "… that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is always the 'pursuit' of happiness that comes as a right, as there can never be true happiness without the 'pursuit.'