#8PhotosOfHappiness - 8 isn't nearly enough!

Even before I had completed Parul's post, I knew I wanted to be a part of the #8PhotosOfHappiness tag. I have always been the go-to guy for pictures, right from my school days when I would be hounding everyone for the camera roll negatives so that I could get a pic to the present day when I keep reminding people to Bluetooth or NFC me the pics I wanted.

So when the post asks us to choose 8 photos of happiness, it was a tough choice going through literally thousands of pictures. Tough, but heart warming.

1. The easiest way for the surgeons to unwind after a hard day's work in the OPD and operation theater was to just whisper one word to each other - "ABS".
ABS Dhaba was the nearest food destination from the hospital where we all resided. Situated literally at the border between two states, they served the most awesome Chicken 007 (that the Andhra girls especially loved because of its spiciness). We have so many fun memories of just coming there late at night and laughing away the blues.

2. Making me the host of a College Anaesthesia Quiz is always a good idea... unless you insist it be academic in nature! When I come all the way from a different state to conduct a quiz about a subject that involves life, death and critical care, rest assured there will be audios and videos (from Bollywood and Hollywood), surprise guest appearances (from people across the globe), confetti and wait... is that a dart board on the wall?  
Who said 'teaching can't be fun?'

3. Speaking of guest appearances, I was a cameo myself in our batch's college group dance contest. While they did an awesome (and hilarious) rendition of Toybox's Super Duper man, I was to cut in and "be myself" when the music changed briefly to Toybox's Tarzan song! I literally came running out of the cartooning contest, had my pants and shirt pulled off and leaves stapled onto my vest for this! Thinking of those cultural event days always makes me smile because they were some of the best days of our college lives. Even when we did not win, we ended up bonding and having loads of fun.  

4. Of course, winning does make a difference. Coming off some of the worst days of my life, 2014 marked an amazing turnaround that even I could not have foreseen. I personally attribute it to the #100HappyDays challenge I took up and completed. Stories getting published, book launches, new and awesome friends, more road trips, five star luxuries... yes, even inner peace. And it all started with winning in India's first live blog awards ceremony, WIN'14  at the Courtyard by Marriot in Mumbai on 9th February 2014.

5. This picture of Snoopy trying to get my mother's attention always cracks me up. It is so typically him, insisting he be the center of our universe. There have been plenty of awesome dogs in our house but this guy is surely one of a kind. Naughty, lovable and always ready to play (unless it is 8pm when his guard dog duties end and he goes off to sleep in my parents' bed for awhile before they intrude!) People who have been blessed enough to live with a dog know exactly what I mean when I say they are the gold standard when it comes to compassion.

6. Surprising as it may sound, I had my first Holi only this year. I've been in India for the better part of over two decades and yet, this was the first time I got to participate. Sufficed to say, it was an awesome experience. 

7. As a writer, I speak in a lot of different voices. Sometimes, it is that of a woman who is worried for her dying child, sometimes it is a young woman dancing beside her kid sister and sometimes it is a man seeking revenge. But there is a voice that truly belongs to me in my stories too and that was the one in the story from my first book launch. That story and the protagonist is based directly on me and garnered a lot of positive comments from readers all over but it made me smile recently when a dear friend read it years later and still found enough happiness in it to brighten her mood. Her comment reminded me of the person I once was... the person I want to revisit again someday. 

I wonder if writers and bloggers know how much their words can influence people's moods and lives?

8. For twenty years, we have had dogs that never responded to a single command we gave them. And then, Snoopy came along. It amazed us at first when he easily picked up words like 'bone', 'cat', 'cow', 'ball' etc. But then, he started getting innovative too. What you see below is his reaction when we say 'chair'. He runs out and stands on the chair, staring at the gate because in his mind, the association is that someone is coming to the house and he wants to be the first to greet that person. 

I am probably going to need 2-3 more such posts to complete all the pictures that I have shortlisted and which could not make this first list. Maybe another 8 or 16 pictures... 24 or 48 at the most! But then, it is okay, right? After all, why should there be a shortage of happiness, right?

Author's note:

Want to take up the tag? Here are the simple rules...

8 Photos of Happiness Tag has been created by Ariel Ward and I invite all of you who are interested to take this happy tag forward. The rules are very simple:

• Tag me on your post if you take this up. (I took it up from Parul, remember).
• Link the creator (Ariel’s little corner of the internet)
• Post your 8 photos of happiness – The photos can be anything that represents a moment, object, place or feeling that makes you happy. Pop in a brief description of the photo, why you chose it or let the photos do the talking!
• Spread the happiness and invite others.