I'm seated at seat number 39 as I write this, and having to deal with a naughty toddler who just won't stop poking me. I pretend to be clueless, ofcourse just to feed her satisfaction. Soon the poking is no longer amusing for her and she decides to reach for my phone (it's all I have for my entertainment, I'm actually writing this off my phone). I can't continue to pretend not to notice her,so I smile, sheepishly. Hoping that she will smile back and get along with her business. Well this trip I am on was hastily put together and as a result, I ended up with one of those dreaded seats in the middle aisle of the bus. As I slowly made my way into the bus, searching through for the seat I had been assigned (#39) , I glanced upon a baby-carrying mother, she had with her a boy, about nine years old, and a younger baby, a girl of about one year. I hoped that I wouldnt end up besides her because I was certain it wouldn't be a comfortable ride. As I got closer, it became clear that the middle seat right next to hers, was labeled 39. Ready to take my seat , I hoped that she had at least paid for one of her children to take up a full seat because I was going to involuntarily get dragged into the seat-sharing equation. My fears were confirmed when she instructed the older boy to squeeze next to her as she sat the baby on her lap. Even before setting off, the baby on her lap was crying uncontrollably, she was probably hungry. I could feel the satisfaction she drew from sucking the milk out of her mother's breast. Her mother must have been used for this because she had a couple of tricks to silence her baby, and they were working. So we eventually set off and the baby, who is no longer excited at the sight of a naked breast, is crying again. Her mother, now fed up and out of tricks, pays a deaf ear, like nothing is happening. Noticing that her crying can no longer attract the kind if attention it once did, the baby slowly shifts her attention to the nearest play thing in sight, me! We were now past the poking and into peekaboo. It slowly morphed from her peeping at me to me hiding behind whatever cover I could find,just to make it even more interesting. I was blown away at how much she was unconcerned by her mother's attempts stop her from disturbing me. Soon she had moved on from the marvel that she found me to be, to the moving sights of the busy city. It is then that I reflected on my time as a child her age. I probably didn't care what the world thought of me, didn't care if I was being a nag to a perfect stranger, I probably played and smiled with every face I saw and poked everybody in reach. I was now wondering what the world would be like if we all were as innocent and carefree as this baby was, if for a day, we all decided to be on the outside who we really are on the inside, if we all noticed the simple things in life that hold the key to true happiness. I could see the happiness in her eyes when it was her turn to hide face and mine to seek her out, never mind that we were sitting next to each other.
That's when it hit me, we are all looking for a happiness that truly doesn't exist, one that we might actually have but don't notice. She had just enough food to eat, probably even less, had a loving and caring mother, a sustainable planet she could call home, and even though her entire family, at least at that point, had only one seat number to fit into, she was content and clearly at peace. I am close to my destination, she is fast asleep on her mother's chest, and I hate to admit that I am missing the short time we spent teasing each other.
