I was ten years old or so—an age where you begin to believe that you have grown up (hit the double digit in age) and now have several rights (starting with the right to voice an opinion). As a result, you also begin testing boundaries that were set by your parents.

In my case, this led to troubled waters—getting my mother’s temper and hackles up quite often. I would answer her back or do the opposite of what I was told to do.

One such morning, she caught me red-handed, doing something that was an emphatic “no-no.” Needless to add, I got a severe punishment that befitted the misdemeanour. It must have been something that even my father felt I shouldn’t have done, so he did not intervene.

I was licking my wounds in the balcony, just outside my room, when Papa came over. It looked as if he was looking for something but couldn’t locate it. Initially, I just watched and refused to make any eye contact with him. Soon, curiosity got the better of me and I had to enquire.

He answered – “happiness,” and then pretended to pluck it from my nose tip, adding that it was right there while I was hunting for it. I tartly responded that how could this be, given the punishment I had just received.

Papa sat beside me and said, “That was earlier. It’s done. The negative transaction is over. Now you have the whole day ahead of you. Don’t waste it on what’s already gone. Happiness is sitting right here, waiting for you to notice it.”

The lesson I learned is that sometimes we feel that things can only get worse from here. But the fact is that positive things are lurking close by. We just need our nose to sniff them out.