View From the Window

Happy kids running around...Parents playing with them....a cute, fat puppy jumping up and down and running around with the kids.... This is what I see everyday, first thing in the morning. As I sit down for breakfast behind the wooden table, I invariably look out the window. After a while, it becomes very easy to forget about my breakfast and my rush-for-the-office routine. Because, in front of me, is so much happiness, that I just want to bask in all of it.
This is not a scene from the neighboring apartment or playground. This is a scene from the tiny slum colony 4 floors below my house. A narrow lane runs between two rows of tiny houses, with tin roofs, and I can witness all the life that exists in that lane from my window.
About 12 or 13 families live in that slum. Men leaving for work, women starting with their routine of day-long chores and children getting ready for school or playing around; the usual activities that don't really speak of anything different. But the difference exists. And I can see that it is the happiness that they have on their faces.
I used to stand everyday at my kitchen window and observe them. It really sparked my interest, when one day, a puppy crawled into the slum, looking horrifyingly malnourished. It was so tiny, that it fit into the palms of the man who had picked it up. As I looked upon everyday after that day, I could see the women taking care of it like they would of their children, kids feeding it and caressing it with love and even the men, who looked positively tired after a day's hard work, would go to the puppy and cuddle it for a while. They have pampered it so much that the puppy now looks like a small panda and is putting the kids to shame when it comes to mischief-making.
It all made me wonder. These are people who are called by the people living in the neighboring colonies or apartments to do small, menial jobs that hardly pay anything. They might struggle so much to keep their lives running. But at the end of the day, they could still muster so much love and compassion for an animal. Not only that, they would feed it with whatever food they can afford,in addition to the food they give it out of their kitchens, had bought a tiny collar and took it for walk everyday.
Most of us spend our lives frustrated with a million things. We might have a frustrating job, have financial constraints, or have fragile health, or simply a victim of the fast-paced life around us. We all work very hard to earn more, live a more luxurious lifestyle, have more "stuff"....in an attempt to be happy. We fast lose touch with our near and dear ones as we try to keep up with our positions and dart ahead in the race.
But what I see from my window everyday is a screaming example of people who are happy with the bare minimum. The women don't go for kitty parties to get together and have fun. The talks and gossips take place when one is pumping water to help fill the other's bucket. The kids don't need play station after their school to ease the boredom. They have the spare cycle tires to play with and compete with each other as to who can hold up the most deformed tire the longest. The men don't need to play pool at a bar...they can help the neighbor fix up his tin roof's holes to prevent the rain from pouring in.
As I look down every morning and night at the tiny slum, I beam with happiness. I'm being taught a lesson everyday. They show me how to keep going even when things are not particularly what I would like them to be. They show me that I don't need lavish luxuries to be happy. They show me that compassion is independent of money. They are showing me the importance of getting back to basics.