What is happiness ?

Folks, how are you ? January is looking more like the foggy English weather than the pleasant tropical winter of these parts. The other day while conversing with my sister, this question casually crossed my mind....and I was a touch surprised to actually find it difficult to answer. The last couple of days have been pretty stressful with work....in fact these days I feel so intrinsically a part of the "rat-race" around me that I really thought of stopping for a moment and asking this question.
So friends, the question today is very simple: "Are you happy?" Now to answer that, we ask ourselves the very question in the title. And suddenly this seemingly naive question throws up more questions......like, Is "happiness" comfort or peace or both? Is it absolute or relative? Is it a very personal thing or a collective feeling? Is it a goal to reach for or just a pursuit in itself? And, as usual, I don't have all the answers either.
But 25 years of my life has helped me find one answer for sure.....happiness can only be pursued but never totally achieved. This is not like saying that all men are greedy and hence never satisfied with what they have (which, to an extent, is true for some).....but the very fact that happiness, like you and me, always grows with us in our lives.......and its form changes with time, place and situation......form being a brand new toy to a kid, to jewelery to a girl, to baby's first steps to a parent, to that one solved equation to a scientist, to a Wall Street listing to a CEO and so on. But the one thing that doesn't change is the very meaning and essence of happiness....or in the pursuit for it! Whatever it is to each one of us, it is very precious and personal.......and it is something we live for....but we often mistake it to be the superficial things or the petty forms of happiness, like our possessions (things or people), ambitions and comforts.....I don't think happiness is the paint of our lives (that some of us mistake it to be) that we can scratch it off the surface and see which color it is......but a little deeper than that....more like the plaster of paris that holds all the paint and cement of our life together from falling off! Isn't it? It's like if i really love someone, i will be "happy" regardless of his/her love for me......why? because I am happy at a very personal level with my feeling, that gives me peace.... it's free of the seemingly material and possessive happiness that we often mistake for real happiness !
Now friends, let us decide what makes us happy........and pursue it with all your heart.....because that's worth living for !!! As for me, I live for 4 other people on this earth......that keeps me going ! Chow....gotta run for lunch. More later.