Shelf Life

By
“No pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.”
                                                                                                           - Francis Bacon



'Shelf life' means: "The length of time a packaged food or drug will last without deteriorating".

In the advertising field, shelf-life means the length of time any piece of news or update or advertisement lasts in the sight of people/customers. Like for example the shelf life of an Ad in a Daily Newspaper is a day.. and the shelf life of the same ad in 'cosmopolitan' would be like a month.

Somehow it got me thinking.. 'What is the shelf-life of happiness?'




Especially in today's world.. How many people are happy?

if you are happy... What are you happy about? and before your brain is trying to comprehend the 'reason' for that happiness, isn't your mind anticipating for another 'reason' to follow through?

And if yes.. how long would the 'first reason' fight with the 'second reason' for us to be happy behind it? before the 'second reason' stands to lose its chance over a third one.


* * * 

I was at my favourite restaurant and eating the famous Hyderabadi Biryani. NO!........ lets stop and rewind a few steps back and begin from the beginning.

That day I was hungry and was in the mood for Biryani... called up my friend. Luckily he was still hungry and we both derived consensus to eat at this place and decided in whose car we would go and where the pick-up point would be and at what time and where. After we get on the car on the road... the war starts.. 'The Traffic'.

After a virtual fight with the traffic and then a fight with the watchman for parking we took the stairs as lift wasn't working. Upon reaching the restaurant, we see this new face in suit 'the manager'.

Now we have to convince him it's not our first time here and to make sure he gives us
the table soon enough. Upon getting the seat, after some minute's wait.. we are shown a still to be cleaned table. Standing beside it marking our territory while they clean up and replace the table cloth we sit. Now even before he hands over the menu card we order the "Biryani".

Now the horrendous wait starts... it's like sitting inside an old smelly car for the engine to warm up.

Before the biryani is anywhere from coming to the table comes the plates and the glasses. then the most difficult choice 'mineral water or regular water? saying yes to one without
even looking at the waiter resumes the continuous flow of side dishes and quarter plates and napkins and cutlery.

And then a sudden calmness surrounds.. as we don't have any activity on our table, we start observing other people at the restaurant. Questioning among us.. "what would be the thought process of that woman while getting ready... wearing that heavy make-up and jewelry? because between getting out of the car and into the poorly lit restaurant, the only person admiring her artificial beauty would be the lift operator and that too for like a minute if not exaggerated.


However after a long wait.. the Biryani arrives. and the brain sends signals to the tongue to produce saliva telling us we're ready to eat.
NOW.. the moment passes from craving for this Biryani to beginning of the judgement.. it goes like this:

1. Last time's was better;
2. May be cook fought with his wife;
3. May be he was not in good mood;
4. May be we came at wrong time; but it’s still better than what we get in Mumbai; etc, etc, etc.,

The point intended in describing this whole occurrent is.. the moment the last spoon is
consumed and even before it is swallowed the happiness we've derived from eating the dish starts to dissolve faster than what it takes digestive enzymes to even start its work.

At this very moment our lives are deprived of every happiness.


Then suddenly a cluster of thoughts starts hitting the brain: 'how about a dessert?' ice cream? kheer? qubani sweet? We finally decided to go for this ice cream place 4 miles away from the restaurant.

Now even though we know that travelling that distance will cost us a similar amount of pain in terms of traffic and parking and more importantly time... we still are reluctant to go after it.

You know why?

Becoz the happiness that biryani has given us has reached the end of its shelf-life.

Now the hunt for another set of happiness starts...

At this moment I should also say.. the day we went to that restaurant was a regular weekend. we weren't particularly celebrating a success nor it was an auspicious day or a long awaited birthday treat.

Going to a fancy restaurant and buying a four figured meal apparently doesn't need a reason anymore.

I keep remembering days in school we used to buy Ice Popsicles (we used to call it pepsi). Its crushed and sweetened ice in fruit flavor filled in a slim plastic tube) for 'half a rupee'.

Now earning that half a rupee from my father was a challenge in itself.

For us kids sucking on that tube till the ice loses its artificial color and becomes white again and then chewing the tasteless ice itself and then a competition with friends on whose tongue is most red then talking and laughing about it among other silly things for the rest of the day or may be till another 'half rupee' was earned don't know after how many days...

I  ask myself a question, what is the shelf-life of that popsicle?



I read in the newspaper once that characterizing someone as 'wealthy' required him to be a possessor of more than just money. He also needs to be happy.

Now.. What's the difference between a rich man and a wealthy man?

Many people think of wealth as an equivalent to being rich. To a certain extent they are right, because riches are a part of wealth. However, people who merely define being wealthy as being rich, miss the big picture. The true definition of wealth is much more subtle.

Wealth is made up of 3 things:


Happiness, Health and Riches (in that order)


If any of these three is missing, you are not wealthy.

Now, talking about a wealthy man.. let's take example of a movie producer.

In the days of Netflix and OTTs and multiplexes and free content everywhwere, the prospect of this man earning his investment is marginally slim. to see why...

Lets go back to the days when Minerva Cinema played the movie 'Sholay' for five years. Coming to 2025 we see a movie with the biggest star cast and months of propaganda can get the beating within the week itself.

Reason for that varies from mass educated Critics rambling on YouTube to illiterates posting feedback on their twitter and instagram pages to people texting reviews of the movie they haven't even seen just because their one minute companion in lift didn't like the female protagonist in the movie.

Each movie has to compete with this much opposition and no wonder first week's collection of a movie is considered to be the only scale of identifying its
fate...

Hasn't the shelf-life of movies gone down to a week?
Would the shelf-life of satisfaction of that Critic be for more than a day?
Would the shelf-life of gratification of the guy watching that movie downloaded from telegram on his phone be more than two hours?
Would the shelf-life of excitement of the instagrammer be for more than a minute before he/she moves on to the next selfie or 'what's on your mind' post?

What is the shelf-life of this article you just read? or has it already been dead?