*“Detachment, the only way to happiness”*

 *Sunday Story*

*“Detachment, the only way to happiness”*

The maid had reported early morning and commenced her chores in the palatial house of the Major General,  posted in Shimla.

It had rained heavily overnight accompanied by a tempest and the maid had her job cut out, as rain and dust had crept in through the crevices as she quietly  began sweeping the floor.

Meanwhile , Memsaab and Sir, who were up with the birds and were at the zenith of their career, had just commenced sipping the aromatic tea, served by their orderly when they heard a sudden piercing shriek of a woman emerging from the bungalow. The sound almost resonated like the cries which the Army veteran was used to in the battlefield, but  to the Memsaab it left a shiver down the spine.

Uptil that moment, this official bungalow had always borne a semblance of tranquility but  this latest missile had all the trappings of residing in a habitation neighbouring a war zone.

Both Saab and Memsaab instantly deserted  their hot morning cuppa  and dashed to the source of the decibelic eruption which they quickly discovered came from the drawing room. With much panic and anxiety writ on their countenance , they stepped inside, only to find the maid whose wail by then had been replaced by loud sobbing and shuddering  while she stood close to the sprawling drawing room’s mantelpiece, holding a broom and nervously indicating the source of the disharmony - a debris, which till yesternight had been their favourite possession and to which they attributed all their accomplishments to.

To recount in one of their visits abroad - Srilanka - almost 30 years back, this nascently married Army couple, were desperately  hunting for a reasonably priced memento which they could afford. A curio stall owner responding to their fervent request offered them  a statue of Buddha. His parting words were  - ‘this statue of Buddha would usher in life long happiness and success’ and with that the sale got sealed.

The coupled thanked the stall owner profusely, struck by his oracular prophecy, as  he parted with the statue and they left for home shortly with their  new acquisition. As days melted into months and years, the Army couple went through their routine  postings even as Saab rose in the hierarchy successfully and occupied important positions. The statue of Buddha occupied the pride of place on the mantelpiece in all their abodes and it gradually acquired the status of a talisman which, as if, was always blessing them and obeying the prophecy foretold.

      And now, here it was - a piece of debris, the overnight storm having accidentally forced open a window close to the mantelpiece and a curtain swaying to the whims of an unruly gust of wind unsettling it from the place where it had always blessed the family. The couple felt gutted.

Not exchanging a word, but with eyes downcast and a heavy heart, Saab and Memsaab left the maid to clear the gathered debris and retraced their steps to the garden to finish the morning brew which had by then become tepid. A pall of gloom had instantly descended on the household  by then.

Quietly contemplating what was in store for them in the days ahead, sans the statue,  they saw the maid suddenly emerging from the bungalow and approaching them hurriedly with a folded chit of paper which she disclosed had formed a part of the debris and which she discovered only after clearing the entire debris.

Memsaab opened the chit with bated breath and quietly handed it over to Saab but not without a hopeful twinkle in her eye. As another cup of hot tea arrived delicately balanced on a tray  by his orderly, the worry on Saab’s visage gradually vanished as he read the handwritten message inscribed on the chit - *‘Detachment, the only way to happiness’*

*Jai Maa Bharati*

*Vande Matram Bharat Mata ki Jai*

*Jai Jai Sri Ram*