Happiness in bounds

Happiness can be defined differently for different people.
For a mother, it could be the birth of her child whom she had in her womb for 9 months. For a father it could be the graduation of his son after which he is going to make his father’s dream come true.For some others, it could be getting their daily bread. For others it could be living without fear of getting raped or molested. For some it could be a thought that their loved ones have survived through a day at war. For others it could be when their son has come back home alive after being at the war.
I have never tried to run behind happiness in my life.. never felt the need to … I had always thanked God for what he has given me and I have learnt to be content, to compare with people who are less privileged and less fortunate than Im .
I come from a part of India where being fair skinned mattered. And I used to be very upset that I was not fair also taking into fact that I was born to very fair skinned parents. My grief just grew when my sister was born fairer ..she looked like an angel… and I envied her for years…Through my early teenage, I think I grew darker coz of my darker thoughts… I always wanted to be fair.. and also used to try most of the fancy face creams which claim to make us fairer.
Once I was travelling by train in India, and saw a girl in the next compartment…. She was beautiful , fair and any one would have looked twice at her without doubt. Her Hair covered a part of her face and when the wind blew it off… my heart ran through a chill. The other part of her face was burnt. She had bruises over the eyes and forehead… and if someone looked at her from that end, they would have just said…ughhhhh. i went up to her and asked her what had happened and how bad she felt after the accident.she told me that she was not sad, but happy instead. The accident was terrible and she was happy to survive after that . she lost her parents , but somebody had rescued her little brother. And so she was happy to be alive for him , to be able to take care of him. Usually people after listening to her story would have sympathized with her. But for me, it was a new chapter in my life. A feeling that one has to be beautiful from inside, not outside. One has to be fair from within too.It changed my life forever… I have never felt the need to be fair after that ...after all it takes God just a split of a second to take away all that he has gifted.
The incident had made me live again and made me very realize that Im beautiful the way Im. I was glad to overcome what I thought was my biggest grief.i smiled to myself… I was happy …..