My friend Manbir Singh lives in Amritsar, India.
I met him when he was 22 in 2011 at my friend's wedding. Manbir had an infectious smile which caused me to want to get to know him better. After the wedding ceremony, we talked on the roof of his house, a patio area of the type many houses in India have.
Manbir looked me in the eye and playfully called me "rich man,“ primarily because I was from the U.S. I wanted to know more about him. He related to me that he lived in the country with his family, and they had three acres, three water buffalos, a tractor, cow and a scooter. I was humbled by his pride, and I began to understand why he called me "rich man." We have a lot more material goods than they do.
I thought for a moment and asked him what he wanted in life. He responded with one word — "happiness." If anything makes a person "rich" it is happiness.
Since 2011, I have stayed in contact with Manbir via the internet. He traveled to Australia seeking happiness, but happiness wasn't there, I learned, when we met. He was without work for seven months there. Manbir is a devout Sikh and refused to work if alcohol, tobacco, or anything his belief system viewed as wrong was connected.
He drove a taxi and finally worked at a rest home. He used his friend's computer to email me. He was always kidding me and never spoke of his difficult times. He determined to return home, where he married. He desired to find happiness together with his wife.
When I got to Amritsar I called Manbir to tell him where I was staying. He said he would meet me there. I anxiously waited outside the hotel and saw him coming on his scooter from a distance. Out of the 1.3 billion Indians I recognized his smile from afar. We hugged and he introduced his mother to me. I extended my hand with no response from her. Shaking hands is a western thing she didn't understand.
Our short reunion was invaluable. He seemed like his jovial self. Reflecting back to 2011, I had to ask him if he had found happiness. He succinctly responded no. He said his wife had divorced him.
They were going to court later that day. You see, his uncle had killed his father because he thought the three acres, three water buffalo, the cow, and the scooter would bring him "happiness.” The cow was sold to hire an attorney to represent them in court.
I was deeply perplexed and emotionally undone.
Life in a third world country isn't easy. Most of us have no idea how well off we are compared to most of the world. I tried to be a fixer but I lacked the time and the tools to fix this situation. Manbir drove off with the smile he arrived with.
I then had to agree with what he told me in 2011. I was a "rich man" because of friends, family and a relationship with God.
Most of us here are "rich." We simply haven't figured it out as we spend our days occupied with negativism. We think about what we lack and not what we have. We focus on the bad that surrounds us. Too often the negative wins the tug-of-war of life.
Craig Garrett has worked for Sun Pacific Farming for 28 years and has taught martial arts for over 40 years via the Bear Mountain Recreation Department.
Source: By Craig Garrett
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/opinion/2016/07/31/happiness-isn-t-three-water-buffalo-nor-is-it-western-riches.html
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