Pleasing

My maid servant came up with some gyan the other day. Here it goes "All of us love pleasing others. More than pleasing ourselves, we like pleasing others. Knowingly or unknowingly we please someone or the other every day. When we please someone knowingly it gives us a lot of pleasure. That's why we all please god. But amma, you know something; my life got wasted just by pleasing others. You also don't do that."
It was too much gyaan to deal with, all at one time.

While I was thinking about what to write, her words came to my mind. The world couldnt do without pleasing, I thought. Actors need to please their audience. Writers need to please their readers. Business men need to please their investors. If my father hadn't pleased my mother and vice versa, I wouldn't have been born today. Many give up their dreams to please others. Many give up priced possessions to please others. Many even sacrifice love to please others.

When I was in school, I did my homework only to please my teachers. I did home work only to get good grades. My parents in turn, would be pleased to see those A's and A pluses. I never did the homework to please myself. I have never felt bad when I got an A- or B+. It was the repercussions these grades would have at home, thats always made me worried. Left alone I didnt give a damn! Whenever the results for exams were approaching, I would begin the task of trying to please god. I would promise god that I would go around the temple near my house one hundred and eight times chanting the Hanuman chalisa. It never occurred to me then that if pleasing god was so simple, then I might as well could have asked god to scrap exams all together.

When it came to choosing a career, I gave up my choice just to please my parents. I convinced myself saying that they knew better. I wasn't the only person who wanted to please my own parents. Everyone wanted to. I thought I did please them by giving up dream of becoming a lawyer, but they thought they had done me good by saving me from making the worst mistake of my life. At work, I try pleasing my boss. Whether I like her or hate her I definitely cannot remain without pleasing her.Sometimes pleasing others makes us happy. Many times it gets frustrating. Every time my boss asks me how her attire looks, I'd have to lie to her that it is gorgeous. I would be pleased to tell her that she dresses up like a vamp.

Just as these thoughts about pleasing others cross my mind, the other day I saw this woman at a popular health store in the city. She was a tall, slim, fair skinned and looked attractive. Her hair was artificially straightened and she wore a simple salwar kameez and a small bindi on her forehead. She appeared to be 25 or 26 years of age.I assumed she was unmarried as I didn't see any mangal sutra hanging from her neck, nor did she wear any rings on any of her fingers. She stood in front of me in the queue, waiting to get the items billed. When the store keeper removed the items she had placed in her basket for billing, for a moment, I was taken aback. There were 15 boxes of Durex condoms. Some were glow condoms, some were chocolate flavoured and some were strawberry. There were vibrators too. Standing in front of me was a woman who came to buy condoms for her man.She chose what he would use. She was one woman who was definitely pleasing herself, I thought. I admired her guts and was pleased to see women's empowerment right in front of my eyes.