bhaskar saikia

We often use the words pleasure, happiness, and fulfilment as if they belong to the same family of emotions. But they are not siblings. They are more like distant relatives—occasionally meeting, occasionally overlapping, but each carrying a very different temperament.

Pleasure: The Flash of Ecstasy

Pleasure is intense, intoxicating, and unmistakably temporary. It arrives like a spark—sudden, bright, overwhelming. A delicious meal, a passionate moment, a long-awaited purchase, an unexpected compliment—pleasure pulls us out of ourselves, but only for a moment.

There is nothing wrong with pleasure. But making it the centre of life is like chasing lightning: thrilling, but impossible to hold.

Fulfilment: The Quiet Eternal

Fulfilment is everything pleasure is not.
It is not loud.
It is not intoxicating.
It does not demand attention.

Fulfilment grows quietly, the way tree roots deepen without anyone noticing.

It comes from meaning—
from a life aligned with purpose,
from relationships built with sincerity,
from work that reflects who we are,
from decisions that honour our truth.

Pleasure visits; fulfilment stays.
Pleasure is a song; fulfilment is an echo that never leaves.

Happiness: The Moment You Can Carry

Happiness is somewhere in between—gentler than pleasure, lighter than fulfilment.
It comes in small, shimmering moments:

The warmth of morning sunlight.
Unexpected laughter.
A cup of tea on a tired evening.
The quiet success of finishing something you once feared starting.
A memory that refuses to fade.

Happiness is the most fragile of the three—small, momentary, fleeting.
But here’s the paradox: Happiness is the only one we can store.

Not in containers, not in journals, not in photograph—but in memory.

Our minds are strange museums—they don’t preserve the intensity of pleasure, and they cannot capture the weight of fulfilment, but they effortlessly archive tiny fragments of happiness.

Years later, a smell, a sound, or a thought can unlock a happiness we had forgotten we collected.

The Art of Living

So how do we live?

We don’t deny pleasure—but we don’t chase it.
We seek fulfilment—but we don’t force it.
And we gather happiness—moment by moment, gently, without urgency.