The Myth of 'Happy People'

Hospitals possess an uncanny ability to strip away life's veneer, revealing truths we rarely acknowledge.

- Preeti Shenoy

As I sit in this sterile yet comfortable private room, watching my mother undergo a minor procedure, I'm struck by how the clinical brightness around me, illuminates more than just the medical charts and IV drips. It exposes the myths we construct in our minds around happiness.

The corridors teem with humanity in its rawest form: doctors striding with urgency, nurses administering medication and families clinging to hope, helplessness and sometimes both. Children struggle to breathe, limbs heal in casts, and pain becomes a shared language transcending all social boundaries. Yet amidst all this suffering, we continue chasing that elusive, shimmering mirage called happiness.