Wednesday, January 19, 2011

'Happy' New Year

My ears burn and my eyes smart when I hear/read the prefix 'happy' for the year ahead, festivals,the quintessential birthday and to top it there is even a TV advertisement that wishes women a 'Happy Period'!!
Aren't we stretching the prefix a tad too far?? Are we lost for words, adjectives
and synonyms to describe a greeting? Is the festival,the year, the birthday happy coz
some of us have received wishes?
Two issues, no actually three here:
One: Does the wish of one person have an affect on the others' happiness quotient?
Two: Is the wish itself pragmatic ? As in is it possible to have an entire year of happiness ,with no dips at all?
Three: Ah , the most important - can one wish for happiness from the environment? Is happiness not oblivious of the environment? To be happy is a choice one makes for himself/herself irrespective of the circumstances , so does wishing each other
really help? Aren't we trivialising happiness when we prefix it ?