Life is Like an EKG!

We think of happiness as reward, sadness as punishment. But is life so black and white?

Happiness is a brief moment—blink and miss. Sadness, on the other hand lingers. In a strange sense it makes us feel important—almost as if we were chosen by it. “Oh look at me,” our ego whispers. “Look at what I have suffered.”

I was at the dog park an hour ago, when a man who had been watching my dog play, walked up to me.

“Your dog is a beauty,” he said.

I turned to look at the man’s face. I saw that even though he was talking to me, his mind was occupied elsewhere.

“Thank you,” I replied.

“Take special care of him. Labradors are the best dogs,” he spoke to me again.

“Yes, I try my best. But, he tires me out! It’s like I am losing patience…”

“You know I had a Labrador,” he cut me short. “He was my first dog. I got him when he was the size of my hands.

I took good care of him. Trained him well. He was jumpy like your puppy, used to act naughty the way your dog might.

But after one year of hard work, he became so well-behaved. A mature, beautiful dog and then one day…” He paused. “One day, someone stole him.”

“What?” I replied, shocked. I looked at the man’s eyes. They were fixed on my puppy, as he pranced about the park.

“Yes, someone stole him,” he replied. “I have the CCTV footage till date. I can see how it all happened. How they got inside my house and took him. But no one could find the thief or my dog.”

“I am so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” I mumbled, as I stared into the face of the man who saw his dog in mine.

“I think about him every day. I have had more dogs after him, you know. But, something like that—when your baby gets stolen—that haunts you for a long time.”

I had been sad last couple of days. I had felt sorry for what I was going through—trials and tribulations of everyday.

The man’s words jolted me out of self-delusion. In a snap second, they presented what real tragedy can be.