Happiness increases in value when shared with others and similarly, sadness decreases in strength when shared.
This dialogue is uttered by Babu Bhaiyya in the Bollywood comedy Hera Pheri.
I am here to express my feelings about the former part of the dialogue and hope to revisit the latter part in the future.
Though science and I, in general, agree with this phenomenon, I witnessed an interesting and peculiar observation.
Many negative things came packed with the years 2020 & 2021 and generally have been years of isolation. And isolation leads to inwards thinking of self, I noticed something opposite to the above statement with regards to happiness.
I was all at home locked up due to COVID and nothing seemed to be moving in my direction, I was restless and sleep-deprived at times due to my anxiety towards my future. These tough times also India witnessed a painful migrant crisis (2020 first wave).
Some of my friends were experiencing new and beautiful things in their lives at the same time. And I was meant to be happy, but I could not. Their sense of joy and happiness seemed to be out of reach for me and I was not able to share their joy and enthusiasm. I agree this has something to do with my state of being, but I was startled as I was not happy enough for them.
Again in May 2021, I feel I have a genuine reason to be happy about my career and future (all anxiety from before vanished). But seeing the negative and sad state of affairs surrounding numerous deaths and dire health crisis, I am not able to share my good news on a public forum. I genuinely think that amid all the distress signals my positive news will be inappropriate.
I don't know how to term my feelings. But all my inward thinking led to me believe that
Happiness is an exclusive club and its benefits can be shared with people happy enough to begin with.
