Happiness

As usual, he was late. Rushing toward the auto rickshaw stand he cursed the whole world for "conspiring" to delay his departure to office everyday! Tomorrow he will definitely do something ..

 "Hello", a little voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.  He turned to see a pretty little girl in a pink dress smiling at him. She looked well-off, and wasn't a beggar child by the remotest chance. He was immediately perplexed . The natural cynicism of a city-bred mind came into play. He looked around to see who she was with. There was no one else nearby. That made him extra cautious. Did someone just leave her here and go away. He avoided her smile and moved on.

She started walking behind him. She asked him, pointing to a tree nearby, "Hi, you see those lovely flowers everyday. Aren't they so beautiful" The truth was that he had never seen them even though he walked down that path everyday!  Then, pointing to a litter of tiny puppies playing in one corner of the footpath she asked, "Don't you think they are very cute?" what he really thinking of was how to shrug off this girl!

Then she pointed to a tree on the road, "look at that bird .so many colours, isn't it beautiful?" she asked .Without looking or answering he continued walking.

He could see the auto stand now and he increased his speed. The child was panting now trying to keep pace with him. She said, "Why are you frowning? What are you thinking of."  He managed a feeble smile in reply. He was thinking of production figures, installments on various  loans and credit cards, the meetings lined up for the day, convincing his superiors the figures couldn't have been better under any circumstances so much stress, so many tensions, he thought with a sigh. Wistfully, he thought he would take a leave and go and spend a few days somewhere in the lap of nature. Where he would have the beautiful sights and sounds nature for company and forget the tensions of daily life.

 At this moment he reached the auto stand. As he eased himself into the auto rickshaw, he saw the little girl moving away with a skip and a hop .  Just out of politeness, he called out after her, "what's your name?" she stopped for a minute, turned her head and smiled, "my name is Happiness"