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Spectator by Seema Goswami: Joy meets girl
The author shares a list of things they love about life, like lazy mornings, coffee, long-haul flights without Wi-Fi, and the joy of coming home
I can be — as regular readers of this column will know — a bit of a complainer. And in my time I have written plenty of columns on ‘What I hate about airline travel’ or ‘The most annoying things about working in an office’ or even ‘The top ten ways in which a husband / wife can drive one crazy’.
Well, this column is travelling in a different direction this week. Instead of another litany of complaints, I am going to share a list of what I love about life. So, here in no particular order, are just some of the things that I believe make my life worth living.
Those lazy mornings when I can sleep in and not bother with the alarm. There is no luxury quite like lingering in bed, swinging gently between sleep and wakefulness, knowing that another 10 minutes of snuggling beneath the covers is not going to throw the day out of gear.
That first cup of coffee that signals the day has begun. The aroma of coffee beans in the kitchen; the first sip that jolts the tastebuds awake; the caffeine jolt that follows. I don’t know how I would get through the day without this.
The ability to download any book I want on my Kindle at any time of day or night. Growing up in pre-liberalisation India means that I can remember a time when new books took weeks if not months to arrive in Indian bookshops. So, it feels like a minor miracle every time I read a review of a new release and just open my Kindle app and download it within seconds. What a time to be alive!
Long-haul flights without Wi-Fi, which means: no catching up on email; no scrolling through Twitter or Instagram; no doomscrolling through news websites. Instead, it’s all about watching trashy movies or catching up on a good book or both, with a glass or two (or four; who’s counting?) of champagne.
The fact that I live in a city, Delhi, that has so much to offer. There are beautiful parks in which I can take lovely walks through the year. There is no dearth of historical monuments to visit. There are plenty of museums showcasing everything from antiquities to art and textiles. There is a clean, functioning, well-connected Metro to take me to far corners of the metropolitan region. And there are plenty of coffee-shops and restaurants to spend time at, with friends and family.
I am grateful that I have the downtime and the resources to go on holiday every once in a while. But I am even more grateful that, much as I love going on vacation, what I love even more is coming home. Holidays and exotic locations are all very well, and don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them as much as the next person. But there is nothing quite as nice as sinking into the depths of my own sofa, or slipping between the covers in my own bed. In my view, the best gift one can get is the ability to enjoy one’s everyday life as much as one enjoys a break from it. That’s where true happiness stems from, and may each of us be lucky enough to experience it.
