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My Happiness Story
My wife and I were living a happy life like many other couples in this world. Our world turns upside down, when in April 2011 a devastation pierced in our life, my wife was diagnosed with stage four Lung Cancer. Doctors discussed her condition and told me that she only had few months to live. I was not ready to accept it. All sorts of worries, disbelief, doubts, and questions rushed into my mind but the question haunted me day and night was, “God Why She?” I asked God repeatedly, what wrong she has done.
Cancer is not a painless utterance in our part of the planet. We both were affected. I was devastated but one day I encountered a very good doctor, who changed my outlook towards life. He said “Yogesh your wife has at least lived for 33 years. She has enjoyed some part of life but the girl sitting outside my cabin is 4 years old and suffering from cancer and I don’t know how many years that child is going to survive.
The doctor helped me to shift my focus. He asked me to focus more on giving her a quality of life instead of thinking about how can I increase the life span of my wife. He asked me to think about how I can make her every moment happy. The doctor explained that we cannot guarantee life and death. We do not what the future will bring to us; all we have is the present moment. Living in the present moment is all that we need. That conversation with the doctor convinced me and from that day I decided to spend every moment with my wife. I tried to keep her happy and motivated in that challenging time. I made sure to make her smile every day and, in the moments, when she smiled, I realized the value of Smile.
This is the journey through which I reached my core of “Mission Smile and Spread Smile”. I understood the secret of life that we need to try and make conscious efforts to be happy irrespective of all the hurdles. There is a famous Hindi song which goes like
“Hanste Hanste Kat Jaye Raste. Zindagi Yuhi Chalti Rahe. Khushi Mile Ya Gham. Badlenge Na Hum Duniya. Chahe Badalti Rahe”.
So after Julie’s demise, I started a Mission. This mission I called mission smile and spread a smile. This is a tribute to my beloved wife, Julie, who touched the hearts of many people with her infectious smile.
This mission I want to spread to all the corners of the world. Julie’s life journey ended on the 3rd of Jan 2012. Smile and spread smile have therefore been founded to do that for her. This mission I want to spread to all the corners of the world.
Mission smile aims to create happiness at every moment with happy memories; it is all about bringing a smile to the faces of many. It is also dedicated to people sufferings from depression and chronic life-threatening conditions and gives them hope to live a happy life.
After doing so many smile events I have noticed that many people want to contribute to a good cause but they don’t know-how. They wanted to be part of mission smile because they said they feel happy about contributing to making other people happy. So happiness365 days is a platform for such people who can join in for smiles and spread smiles and make people happy who are in desperate need to smile. With the constant pressure in today’s life, people have forgotten to be happy and smile.
Everybody is in the race to earn money and sustain themselves in today’s competitive world. In the bargain, we have to compromise on a lot of fronts and that brings depression and unhappiness in life. This leads to a lot of health problems. When such people participate in smile events they experience a sense of giving. They feel so happy when they see others smiling.
This movement is not only my movement but its by you and me, the common man, with no personal agenda or personal gain other than that satisfaction of making someone happy. Mission Smile’s only motive is to make someone smile, someone less privileged than us, someone who needs that little support to stand up and walk again.
Many doctors who have participated in my events agree that these smiling activities give a lot of encouragement and hope to these suffering Patients. They say a smile is the best medicine and it’s true in the case of these patients.
Through our program ‘Mission Smile’ we aim to make others smile by undertaking campaigns and hosting events for those who need a reason to smile.
Smile and spread smile is mainly for those who in their small ways want to contribute to society by making someone smile. It is also for people who want to do something for the happiness of others but don’t exactly know where to start from.
Too often we underestimate the power of a smile which has the potential to turn a life around. Because of smiles, we make life more beautiful. To make someone smile from their heart the person needs to be truly happy.
I would like to share my experience with one children’s cancer care center in Mumbai. I wanted to do a kite flying activity in the center with the kids. Initially, the management was a little hesitant about it but finally, they supported me for the activity. The activity was thoroughly enjoyed not only by children but also their parents and the other staff member. For almost three hours kids were enjoying this activity with their parents and the happiness I saw on their faces was something I never experienced in my life. They were so happy with just this kite flying activity.
While returning from the center I said thanks to the management executive for allowing me to do this activity. The heart-touching reply I got from their staff made me understood how invaluable happiness is! She said “Yogesh you don’t know what valuable work you have done! Last week we lost (died) two kids in this center and the kids and parents were under so much stress but because of this activity the stress has reduced and the kids are smiling again and now when tomorrow they go for the chemotherapy at least they will be in happy mood.
Another activity we conduct through mission smile is going to the houses of patients with cancer survivors and gives these patients hope and will to fight.
When my wife was suffering from cancer the most challenging part for me was how to motivate her every day. Whenever I used to motivate her and give her hopes my wife used to say “Yogesh you don’t know what I am going through.” That’s when a gentleman called Hosi Uncle came into my life who himself was a cancer survivor. Doctors had said that he may survive only for six months but he fought with the disease successfully and he is still going strong for the last 14 years. But He not only survived the disease but now he has dedicated his life to helping cancer patients.
His Uncle now helps poor patients file their applications and ensure they go for a regular health check-up. He collects rags from a local tailor and stitches them to make quilts and pillows for patients. Till today he has given away more than 8000 quilt and pillows to poor patients. He also distributes homemade oil of methi and garlic which helps relieve pain-free of cost.
After starting mission smile I have made Hosi Uncle my ‘smile ambassador’ and with him, I reach to a cancer patient and their families so that the cancer patient and his family get hope and remain motivated throughout the treatment. I found my real happiness is motivating these patients.
Cancer is such a bad and costly disease. The cancer patient and his family are under constant pressure. When they see a live example of a cancer survivor they get motivated and that helps the patient as well as the entire family.
Mission smile is an initiative where people can volunteer to spread smiles by using music, magic, fun, and laughter for children in hospitals, orphanages, and slums. Imagine being a child in a hospital suffering from some kind of life-threatening disease away from the comfort of your home and all that is familiar, and feeling sad, anxious, frightened, lonely, or in pain. This is where Smile and mission smile is helping kids. We treat children in hospitals with medicine of a different kind…doses of fun and laughter!
My message to all the readers is Life is an unpredictable journey. One thing that I have learned is, don’t take anything for granted because you never know when something will come to an end. Life is unpredictable and there is nothing much we can do about it. So we should try not to let it all go by, and make the best use of the time we have.
I appreciate my volunteers by giving them recognition of “smile ambassador” when they participate in the events. This we believe, will encourage people to share with others their deeds since they will be recognized and will also motivate those who have been wanting to do the same but don’t know how to. Ideas will be shared and interaction will take place between people worldwide!
I believe that one good deed by a person is enough to motivate a locality, and a locality is enough to motivate a city, and so on. I want to take initiative in motivating the whole world to come forward, change their planet for good, and bring in a better future.