good evening again when John Lennon the
famous beetle was five years old his
mother told him that the key to happen
is key to life is happiness so when John
went to school his teacher asked him
what did he want to do when he grew up
and he said he wanted to be happy and
his teacher told him he didn’t
understand the question and he told his
teacher she didn’t understand life
children funny little creatures they are
I think all of us can agree that they
are very sweet and cute also sometimes
the little silly sometimes privilege and
adults offers are God’s gift to mankind
we’re all so smart and wise and mature
and we take all the right decisions all
the time we know how that’s worked out
for life so for this world that squats
people as adults and children smart and
dumb much or an immature I have a little
theory mattel is this I say that the
in my most favorite pep talk of all time
the paradox of choice Barry Schwartz
talks about how we have so much more
choice available to us today and
theoretically all this choice should
actually make us happier but it turns
out that it doesn’t because just having
to choose between all of these options
available to us all of which are frankly
very similar actually makes us unhappy
er right does it so Barry makes a strong
case for simplicity for living a simple
life for being happy just by being
simple and I think we can all agree that
there is nobody simpler than children so
who better to learn the art of happiness
that from children four years ago 2
children were born my first and only
daughter move and a 35 year old father
mean I was born again with her nudists
brought me more magic than my entire
life put together and today I am really
grateful for the privilege of standing
before you and telling you five of the
most magical things I’ve learned from my
daughter in some ways growing up to be
an adult takes a lot away from us well
there is no denying that it makes us
more literate more intelligent and some
believe a little more mature it also
throws us into this complex world where
happiness is equated with what you
possessions something tangible and he
changed that material possession and
that happened has all of our entire
lives in school which is in grades after
college which is in jobs and for the
rest of our entire life we’re just
chasing growth increments profits what
not in our so-called pursuit for
happiness we’re actually running a race
that has no finish line whatsoever what
so ever and that can’t possibly make us
happy my bundle of joy move constantly
shows me that this so much joy hidden in
our ordinary everyday lives just by
chasing soap water bubbles he teaches me
that there is a lot more to life than
chasing deadlines by dancing to random
emigration sounds happening from house
above us I promise you we have not shot
any of these videos for this
presentation this actually happened to
you around so by dancing to random
sounds she’s actually teaching me that
the music for life is nowhere else but
in our own heads in fact with some
amount of embarrassment today I will
confess with you and the rest of the
world the little daughter and to our
Father we sometimes whisk away balloons
from birthday parties we’re not stealing
that’s that we just whisk them away
after the party is over quietly when no
one’s watching and the nude plays with
these balloons for hours together and
she teaches me that I don’t need
expensive toys to get joy look if it’s
going to take an extraordinary amount of
effort a lot of hard work or crazy wants
money then chances are that it’s
probably not going to give you
joy because the real joy actually lies
in the small simple stupid things all
around us we’ve just got to find what
unfortunately we spend our entire lives
today trying to be someone else the dark
want to be fair the short wanna meet all
the old wanna be young the fat want to
be thin and the thin wanna be even
thinner which is never comfortable with
who we really are without anesthetic to
what the society wants us to be what our
parents want us to be what our wives
husbands boyfriends girlfriends friends
and colleagues wants to be we constantly
feel like everyone around us is watching
us and judging us for every single
action that we take life’s become this
one big popularity contest with a number
of likes that we get has come to
determine what our self for this all of
us want to become picture-perfect role
models for everyone around us and in
constantly trying to be someone else
frankly we end up being no one I love
that nur is our own girl I really love
that she dances like no one’s watching I
love that she doesn’t discriminate
between a well-groomed Persian cat and
that scrawny streetside dirty cab they
both get it to her and she wants to pet
them both equally I love the fact that
she doesn’t judge her friends for the
presence they bring her on a birthday
party she’s really just landed the game
she doesn’t compare yourself to others
and feel jealous she doesn’t judge
people for the color of their skin or
how much money they have in their pocket
you should really see how much he loves
and protects her nanny no one dare say a
word to her I love the fact that she
doesn’t feel apologetic
is all embarrassed for fat and bald
father at least not yet I hope I really
really admire that she’s not trying to
be so much it’s not and from her I
learned that I don’t need to be someone
I’m not so we’ve just got to be
comfortable with who we are stop judging
and more importantly refused to be
charged lets me okay with the choices
that we make lets me and peace with
wherever we are in life the world would
look pretty weird if you were all clones
of each other frankly that’s the
direction we’re heading so let’s
celebrate our differences let’s
celebrate our uniqueness let’s just be
the adult human brain weighs about three
pounds and constitutes two percent of
our body weight yes sir as some of us
know that’s the organ that can sometimes
we used to think and feel and how we
think and feel makes us who we really
are the small little problem is that
sometimes thinking and intelligence can
turn into intellectualization and
sometimes our ability to rationalize can
make us question everything and believe
nothing we can easily become very
cynical with the world that we live in
we find it difficult to trust people
around us and view everyone with some
amount of skepticism we let our
so-called intelligence take over and
start doubting everything we started
looking for motives why someone saying
what they’re saying why are they doing
what they’re doing what could they want
from me we stopped believing in all the
little things that we believed in very
little we stopped believing in people we
start believing in magic and sometimes
we stop believing in our own cells my
daughter mood at the moment believes
that she is a fairy a few months back we
were at the butterfly garden here in the
buyer and after seeing all those pretty
butterflies new decided that she wanted
her own wings fairy wings we went to the
merchandise shop and didn’t happen that
sold out we begged we pleaded we
requested I think I fell down with their
feet and the counter ladies were so
awesome so nice and kind but they
actually gave her the only display piece
that they had the display piece was
slightly damaged there was a tiny little
turd on it
and here’s the thing as a result I could
not see the wing just the tail it was
damaged for me my daughter just could
not see the tail she only saw the wing
not once did she complain about the tail
not once did she even mentioned it not
once did she demand a new pair because
the one that she had was damaged because
she believed that she’s a fairing and
those were her wings as you can now see
she wears them all day every day whether
she’s doing schoolwork or watching TV or
eating or even went to the washroom do
just like move millions of children all
over the world believe in many things
that we adults dis mess with our
intelligence just because there’s no
proof for them they believe in monsters
they believe in Santa they believe in
magic they believe in all the little
bedtime stories we read to them and from
them I’ve learnt to believe i believe in
the goodness of people i believe that
the world is a beautiful place to live
in and i genuinely believe that great
things happen to good people from the
bottom of my heart we are what we
believe in and you can always do
whatever you believe we can do trust me
if somebody who’s had a stammering
problem all their life can stand before
you today on this dead stage then I can
promise you you can do whatever you
speaking of believing some parents
believe that the hardest thing about
parenting is the nonstop questions of
the children ask things that we don’t
even think about why do birds fly but
humans don’t where does water come from
why is this type rule I don’t think a
lot of us you would know why the sky is
blue maybe you do maybe I’m just but and
the award for the most amazing question
ever goes to where do babies come from
so why do children ask so many questions
there are these questions because it
helps them make sense of the world that
they live in a world around them a world
it is still very very new for them but
when the same children turn into a
darkness we stop asking questions we
stop asking them because they are afraid
to ask questions we don’t ask questions
because people might think that we’re
stupid or we might not ask questions
because we think we know everything
whatever be the reason the daily star
asking questions is the day we stop
drawing I am delighted that moon asks so
many questions because I believe that
asking questions is what make her grow
into a beautiful intelligent young woman
I learned from her how do we do this
about everything there’s very no
question too small or too big a question
unfortunately no doesn’t live with me
she lives about 2,000 kilometers away
from where we are I have the joy of
meeting her every few weeks and every
time I meet her and I come back I speak
to her on the phone and I tell her how
much I miss her and she innocently asks
me why do you go away then Papa it’s a
question that I don’t have an equally
innocent answer to yet but the fact that
she asks me this makes me ask ask myself
this and I’m confident that the father
and daughter visiting team will probably
the weather is you only live once
generation there’s always so much to do
and so little time so we squeeze
everything that we can into every waking
second of hours gone are the days when
we needed a vacation to escape from work
these days we need a vacation to
destress from the vacation that we just
took speaking of occasions my family and
I took a lil be clogged vacation to
Singapore last year and being the
obsessive compulsive planner that I am I
had our entire itinerary planned in
remarkable detail by the day by the are
by the minute I studied Metro maps train
timings and weather forecasts for me to
qualify property as a guide and simple I
had gone to the extent of finding out
from what time to what time the hotels
of breakfast because you shall never
miss complimentary breakfast at hotels
anyways with all my meticulous planning
I decided that we will do 19 things in
Singapore in seven days it’s how many we
ended up doing we did for things we went
to the singapore zoo on the first day
okay and instead of the 3000 47 minutes
that I decided in my itinerary that we
are going to spend there yet he spent
not just a day but two days there but is
no wanted to have conversations with up
to the elephant cinema the lion go to
the giraffe she wanted to meet all the
animals that she had heard in that
bedtime stories from me and all the
cartoon shows that she watches and that
just would not be rushed she didn’t care
about the plan she didn’t care there
were more things to do a more places to
go she was just fully immersed into what
she was doing in that moment with all
her heart body and soul and that is just
beautiful so if we’re going to be doing
things just because we want to do them
or take them off our bucket lists then
that’s not was ring at all just do the
few things that really give you joy that
really
you happy and trust me that’s what magic
is all about I’m going to close with
this we don’t realize this sometimes but
a moment lost is lost forever it’s never
going to come back no matter what you do
no matter what you do suspend every
apparently John Lennon wasn’t the only
person in the world who wants to be
happy by the way it seems like these
days the whole world wants to be happy
and they’re looking for it online if you
just search for write down your phones
how to be happy in a second you will
have 256 million results do it and
you’re probably in luck because
happiness is all also on sale these days
I had a flat fifty percent off but
please hurry because you don’t have what
it takes to pay the full price for
happiness we live in a crazy world today
with all this all this pressure to be
all yo and all Yolo there’s always so
much to do and so many choices to make
and all of this can sometimes make us /
think / intellectualize / rationalize
and that can sometimes overheat our
brains and over the minds and that just
cannot make anyone happy I’m really
happy that New the little walking a non
stop talking daughter that I have finds
joy in the simplest things around her
I’m grateful that she’s so comfortable
with who she is I’m grateful that he
naturally believes sometimes things that
I demand proof for I’m grateful that he
asked innocent questions I’m grateful
that she enjoys every single moment of
our life by just being in them here’s my
last theory I think news happy because
she doesn’t know what happiness is yet I
think she’s happy because she doesn’t
think about how to be happy
in fact I think she’s happy because she
doesn’t think about anything at all to
my daughter who might watch this many
years from now all thrown up I hope nude
you’ll always be this simple child
inside and to us no matter how busy we
get no matter how old we become no
matter what anyone else thinks let’s
always have this child inside us because
the only way for us to be happy in life
is to live it like a child that ladies
and gentlemen is the magic of life thank
you [Applause]