We have been living with a pretty strange behaviour in which we don’t recognise our own.

We get dissatisfied if we don’t get our salaries that we have been receiving regularly. But that does not mean we get excited every month when our regular salary gets credited. What makes us happy is that extra income, which we manage to earn within the period outside our regular work, like overtime pay or the income that we receive from our parttime job. Had that separate income been merged into our regular salary that would satisfy us but not delighted. We follow the trend because everyone does it.

We don’t want to be alone in society. I don’t remember during Nawami, a day before Bijaya Dashami, worshipping vehicles back then when I was in Biratnagar. We never had such practice there. Later, when I shifted to Kathmandu, I had to follow the ritual. The rituals that I used to perform during Biswokarma Puja shifted to Navami. Not just this, back then, we used to have this practice of not spending a single penny on the day of Laxmi Pooja. But once I landed here, I learned that we needed to buy a new broom and a nanglo on that particular day.

We started following the tradition. Our behaviours keep changing; our thoughts and perception get modified with the change in time, place and society. I could not order anything from the canteen because of the fear of the coronavirus when I got transferred to this department, which I would have done in another case.

As everyone brought their lunch from home, I did the same. Society shapes our mind, determines our way of thinking and directs our behaviour around us. There are good deeds and bad deeds, but how we are seen is defined by the society that we live in. If the same letter ‘B’ is placed in between numbers, we see it as 13, and if it is placed in between the alphabets, we see it as the letter ‘B’. No matter how high the level of learning one has, people are always perceived by the assets they own.

There might be liabilities higher than the assets, but that does not arouse attention - all that society is interested in is ‘assets’. The car that one rides through, the apartment that one owns - might be through loans made available by a bank. But loans are subject to be hidden as they are never shown.

What matters, in the end, is satisfaction and happiness. It is not important if the things that we are doing are right or wrong - but we need to have a sense of peace in our mind. Human behaviour probably looks the same.