Wisdom from dada

'Dada' means Grandfather in Hindi.

I realized today that the strong sense of family that we see in India is also reflected in the language. There are different words for your father's father (dada), and your mother's father (naanaa), and your son's son (pataa), and your daughter's son (dhtaa). There are even distinctions between your Father's older brother's wife (taaI) and your Father's younger brother's wife (caacai). There are many kinds of uncle -- your father's older brother, your father's sister's husband, your father's younger brother, your mother's brother, or your mother's sister's husband.

So I understand a little better now how people can say there are 100 members of their family. They probably have different words for all of them!

Anyway, learning this was a side effect of trying to find the spelling for 'dada', after a conversation with my co-worker 'P'.

He was excited to tell me that he got engaged on his vacation. I didn't quite know if it was appropriate to ask if it was an arranged marriage. But he is clearly happy about it, in any event.

He is looking forward to his new responsibilities as a family man, and it has made him rather philosophic. He wonders whether all of our modern inventions have actually made anyone happier. He notices that his parents and grandparents do not have computers, and yet they are quite happy. So he asked his 84 year old 'dada' what the secret of happiness was. Here is his answer:

Happiness = (Total # of desires fulfilled) / (Total # of desires)

So we tend to have lots of stuff, but we crave more, so our happiness ratio is not always very good. His parents and grandparents do not have a lot of stuff, but they don't want more things, so they are happy.

It's quite an idea...