THE DEGREE OF HAPPINESS

22

Soroush drafted the contract between Ammaty and my mother. Ammaty, unable to bear the humiliation, left. My friends and I had a little victory dance in Jida's apartment before they too, left, to get back to their lives. Ishita had to move in with Tina and Shezwa had to go back for her little sister, who she couldn't stay away from for a long time. ("She's so cute!")

I spent that day, and the following day sleeping, to nurse the headache that had bloomed in my head. 

Pathetic way to spend the last days of vacation. School was starting the next day. 

After reading Maghrib on my last day of vacation, I made one batch of chocolate cupcakes and another batch of strawberry cupcakes whilst turning on the audiobook for Daisy Jones and the six by Taylor Jenkins Reed. 

Taylor Jenkin Reed, I tell you, has magic in her fingertips. All I needed in life was to get a physical copy of the book someday. 

After finishing with the cupcakes and getting to a significant chunk of the book, I turned it off and placed the cupcakes in a tray. Then I put on a full sleeved gray T-shirt and pants, a black scarf over my head before I headed to Jida's apartment.

Jida greeted me with an "Assalamualaikum."

"Waalaikumsalam!" I said, "I brought cupcakes. The strawberry ones are sugar-free. Mom always has sugar-free ingredients for the times when Nana comes to visit our house. Nana is diabetic too."

"Oh, that's excellent! Come in! Come in!" she said and I entered the house and placed the cupcakes on the table. 

"How did you know strawberry is my favorite?" she asked.

I shrugged, "Lucky guess?" 

I glanced at his door to find it locked. "Where is Soroush?" I asked.

"Oh....him. He's in his bedroom. Studying." she replied, "He didn't do well in his test today. Too much on his plate."

I winced, "Yeah. He did have too much on his plate."

She shrugged, "Well, little little failures always lead to success, don't they? I told him not to worry. But, he is being quite harsh upon himself. He hasn't come out of his room."

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling guilty. "It's me."

"Why are you sorry? It's not you!" Jida exclaimed, "My dear girl, it's not you! It's the system we've gotten ourselves trapped in."

She took a glass and poured water in it. She handed the glass to me. I took it in my hands and she said, "From birth, parents dream that their child will be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer or a scientist. The child grows and is put into a race with others to be the best in class. Later, the pool of racers increases to get the perfect degree for the perfect job. It's a rat race that never ends. But even then, in the perfect job, in the perfect career, a person suffers because they don't get their desired pay, their desired life, their desired partner, their desired house. Problems plague them even after the perfect degree." 

She sighed, "But do you know what the perfect solution is?"

"Achieving the degree that gives you happiness?"

"Now, that is one wording. Though not the wording I would prefer," she said, "The perfect solution is achieving the degree of happiness. This degree varies from person to person but when a person manages to achieve that degree, then they are the ones that have truly conquered the world. They are the ones that can see the fairies. After all, isn't this world temporary? We all have to return back to the Creator. So, why run after success like that?"

"Because if we don't, the world will trample us over," I replied, "I agree that the world is temporary, but we have no choice but to race. Otherwise, we starve. And anyways, if everybody decided to go after what their heart desires, then there would be no laborers, no construction workers, would there?"