The greener side

Grass is always greener on the other side, they say. Almost all of us go through that moment when we think – “oh, how lucky the other is to have such a life; I wish I had that too.” This is a story of one of us who went through the exact same feeling. Her name was Maria.

Maria had a busy life – full of stress. She had a family – her husband, and two young children: 6 and 10 years of age. She had a brilliant professional career - she was Vice President of Marketing at a packaged juice company. She drew a high salary, wore the most expensive clothes, used only branded products, drove a luxury car and overall, had a life that many would envy. Her husband Steven was a high achiever too – he was CEO of a large technology company, and had a pretty busy life.

Maria’s day would be – as you can imagine – a hectic one. It started early –getting her children ready for school, dropping them off in her car and heading straight to work. The nanny would then pick the children up from school in the early evening and look after them until Maria returned from work.

Maria’s work day would be full of meetings, presentations, international conference calls, and a number of high-impact decisions. She would almost never have the time for a lunch break. She had the global responsibility of building the company’s brand and developing the core product line across the world. Very often, that would mean travelling across the globe, working with people from different countries & backgrounds, staying on top of thousands of issues and always facing every music from the executive team with a broad smile – be it a compliment or a complaint.

With everything that Maria had – a lovely family, plenty of financial resources and a superb career, there was one thing she lacked – peaceful happiness. You wouldn’t say that Maria was an unhappy woman, but behind her charming, smiling face, there was stress and lack of peace. She always complained to herself about how hectic her life was, and how she wished it had been simpler.

Every Saturday morning, Maria would take her younger kid to the bakery next door – this bakery was well-known for its freshly made soft brown bread. Maria loved the very smell of it. So every Saturday she would visit the bakery and spend a few minutes there. She would purchase the bread, and a few cookies for the kids and return home.

The bakery was run by Miss Ani - a sweet, middle-aged woman.  Miss Ani did not know Maria personally, but both women exchanged broad smiles whenever they passed each other. Maria was Ani’s weekend customer, who came to the bakery every Saturday – without exception. And to Maria, Ani was the baker who made the best bread in town, and probably the happiest person in town too – Ani always smiled and appeared so full of life.

Often times, in the morning when Maria would be stuffing her children in the car, she would see Ani ride away on her bicycle waving her hand with a broad smile on her face and a “Good Morning” that would only make you wonder – how do you manage to be so happy every day!

September 19^th 2016

It was a typical work day, and Maria completed her regular morning duties at school and drove to the office. As soon as she reached there, she was summoned for and was given the news that the company’s competitor had announced the launch of a new juice recipe – an organic one, at the same price. The company had to take a few fast decisions, and launch their own organic variant as soon as possible to protect themselves from the competitive pressure. Since Maria was heading the global marketing team, it became her responsibility.

The rest of the day was a roller coaster ride – meetings after meetings, brainstorming sessions, talks with agencies, market trend analysis and so on. Maria’s brain was running a marathon at full speed. At the end of the day, she had it all under control. However the stress she had gone through the day made her look a year older.

She drove back home, and out of exhaustion she decided to take a short walk in the park next door, before getting ready for the kids at home. She walked for a few minutes and then sat down on a bench. She tried to think clearly – she was not happy – why was life so stressful, why was there no peace.

Just at that moment, she could see Ani – the baker at a distance shutting down her little bakery and picking her bicycle up to head back to her little apartment in the village nearby. Ani was still smiling, and looked so happy. As she started approaching Maria on her bicycle, Maria thought “Oh how I envy her – I wish I had her life. She is always smiling – I wish I could do that – I wish I was her”. Just then Ani passed her on her bike and waved a “Good Evening” wave with a broad smile. The two women exchanged a smile and a glance and Ani rode away.

That evening – the evening of 19^th September 2016, an amazing event occurred in Maria’s life. As she was sitting by the window sipping a glass of wine, an angel appeared.

He said “I grant you your wish Maria. You want Ani’s life – and you will have it. You will have it for the next week. If you like it, you can have it forever.”

“Oh, really? But what about Ani? What would happen to her?”

“She will have your life dear Maria”.

“But will she agree to do this?”

“I shall convince her – you don’t worry about that. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, you shall not be Maria, you shall be Ani – I grant you your wish”.

September 20^th 2016

Maria woke up in a tiny apartment. It smelled of bread: yes the same smell she loved. As she looked into the mirror, she smiled to herself – she was Ani. She would now have to run the lovely little bakery. She would have the pleasure of riding that bicycle around. As she was absorbing the happy thoughts, the phone rang – she answered it.

“This is Ani” she said.

“Ani, this is Merkel, calling from the kitchen right now” a high pitched voice said.

Merkel was the young girl that worked with Ani at the bakery. She was calling her partner from the bakery, to give her some bad news.

“We have the same issue again. Our old oven has broken down again Ani! We have 10 orders for birthday cakes today. What will we do now? If we don’t deliver this we will have another week low on cash. I am afraid, Ani. I need some cash this week. I can’t go on like this Ani. Remember what happened yesterday? Our long time customer Mr. Knox was mad at us for not meeting his order well. Soon we will be out of business Ani!” Merkel was almost weeping.

“Listen, don’t worry. I will be right there, okay? We will fix this”. Maria, uh, I mean Ani replied.

Well, now this was not expected, Ani’s life was supposed to be so simple, Maria had hoped to go biking that morning. Well, perhaps tomorrow. Let’s solve the broken oven issue today.

She hurriedly started getting ready – as she entered the shower she realized there was only soap – a very low grade one, no shampoo, and certainly no conditioner. She decided she would go shopping in the evening. Once out of the shower she realized there was no hair dryer either! That was rough.

Inside Ani’s closet she found only a few clothes – all of them were gaudy and none to Maria’s expensive taste. Well, she had always seen Ani inside an apron or an over-coat, so she had never realized what she wore underneath. “No worries” she thought – “I asked for simplicity, and this is probably what it looks like”.

She got herself into a blue ill-fitting outfit and red boots and then wore the overcoat on top. Inside the kitchen there was very little breakfast – only bread – leftover from the bakery the past evening. She found a bit of marmalade and some coffee after some searching. That was definitely not what her usual breakfast looked like – no fruit, no cereal, no yogurt. Ani certainly did not have a healthy, balanced diet.

She ate what she could and rode away to the bakery. Merkel was waiting for her.

“What on earth took you so long Ani? You are usually never so late, and especially when we are going through such a tough time.”

“I am sorry. Let us look at the oven.”

It was not running – they obviously did not know what to do! It was an old oven, and clearly needed to be replaced. And replacement would cost money, and there was none.

They had to think fast and take decisions. They made a few calls to all their friends in town asking for help – to use their home ovens. There were 10 cakes to be baked for that day and 20 more over the coming 2 days. They were able to find 8 homes – homes of their friends with good ovens. They divided the work between them and over time, fulfilled these urgent orders for the 10 cakes – they were working every minute all morning until late afternoon. They did not even take a lunch break!

It was very stressful to manage these orders while managing the day-to-day bakery customers. Given their situation, they were also unable to take orders for the following week, as there was no oven. This was obviously not sustainable.

So they approached a bank later that afternoon, to ask for loan – to invest in bakery equipment. The bank always asks for collateral. The only collateral available was the bakery itself. But there was no choice – they had to go for it.

This was indeed one of the most stressful days that Maria had experienced – this is certainly not what Ani’s life had looked like from the far, but so be it. Hopefully it will get better – Maria thought. At the end of the day as she rode back home, she was exhausted to the core. She ate some bread and simply fell asleep on the damp sofa.

The following morning had a decent start – she and Merkel visited the bank and their loan was sanctioned. In the next few hours they were also able to make their oven purchase. Without the oven, the bakery had to be kept shut down, and they had quite some lost business. Merkel was certainly not happy about this. Ani (Maria) was also disturbed – she wanted to shop for shampoo and conditioner however, they were rather low on cash and she did not feel she could make personal luxury purchases when the bakery and her partner were in so much stress. So she postponed the shopping plans.

The following day seemed a more regular day to as she woke up. She had an early start, and together with Merkel she got the new oven all set up. And then, the baking all started. She was so far enjoying being in the bakery with the smell of bread around her. However, by afternoon she started feeling exhausted. The job of a baker is not an easy one. The baker has to stand all day, and pay careful attention to details. If a recipe goes wrong, the whole item would have to be discarded – and that would mean losses.

The bakery is a hot place – there is not a lot of cool air around. And during peak hours of the morning, there is very little time to breathe!

She thought late mornings around 10:30 AM, or 11 AM would see the beginning of a calmer period – but she was totally wrong! At 10:30, Merkel informed her that they had to start getting the lunch combos ready – sandwiches had to be made, salads had to be mixed and put into boxes and desserts had to be organized. Lunch time, from noon until 2 PM were busy hours when people visited to buy take-away lunches.

After that tiring morning and afternoon, she finally had a breather around 3 PM to eat her lunch. But there was hardly any appetite. Being in the middle of food all the time made her not so hungry anymore. But she had to munch on something to get back the energy for a busy early evening! So she quickly ate a salad and a yogurt and got back to work. 4 PM until 7 PM was another busy time for the bakery – lots of customers coming over to buy cakes and pastries. There were also a few birthday and anniversary orders that they had to fulfill.

At the end of the day Maria was exhausted to her core – how did Ani manage to smile after a day like this she thought to herself.

The following two days followed a similar pattern – they were full of activity. Finally on Friday evening, she took a deep breath and thought “Aha the weekend is almost here.” Again she was wrong!

Friday evenings and nights were the busiest. Bakers had to actually work a lot of extra hours every Friday, to ensure they were ready for a busy Saturday morning. Being the start of the weekend, a lot of customers in happy moods would visit the bakery with their children and make a lot of purchases for their families. So not only did the bakers have to work extra-hard, but they had to make a lot of extra effort to look happy and smile! If they did not smile, their customers’ start of the weekend would be impacted negatively.

On the Saturday morning as the bakers were serving the happy customers, a customer with a little girl arrived – yes, you guessed it right – we are now talking of the new “Maria” – this was Ani who was living Maria’s week. She came there with Maria’s younger kid – it was part of the routine. She looked dreadful. Clearly Maria’s stressful executive life had not suited Ani.

The two women simply looked at each other and shook their heads as if saying – “please give me my life back”.

That evening as Maria (who was living Ani’s life) sat in her tiny apartment thinking about the past week, the angel appeared again.

“Hello Maria, what did you think of Ani’s life? Did you enjoy the week? Would you like to continue? Or do you want your life back?”

“Oh thank you for coming. Please do give me my life back. I cannot live Ani’s life. Please take me back to where I come from. I want my own life back.” Maria pleaded.

“Okay” responded the angel.

Maria said “But wait, what about Ani? You know, I saw her this morning – she looked tired and not happy. I feel terrible for her. What have I done to her! I think she did not enjoy my life. I feel very sorry for taking her week and giving her a hard time living mine”.

The angel laughed out loudly, and said “Oh poor Maria, did you think you did this to her? Well the reality is very different my dear. In fact Ani wanted to live your life as much as you wanted to live her! Let me tell you what happened…”

The angel took Maria into a flashback – September 19^th 2016

Maria was sitting on the bench in the park after her hectic day at work. Ani was still in the bakery, wrapping up for the day. Ani was not happy – it was Ani’s birthday, and she was all alone. She was a baker who baked delicious cakes for others. But on her own birthday she had no one to bake a cake for her. She was sad, and was missing her mother.

“What a life is this” she was thinking.

“It is only about hard work and giving. Why am I not happy.”

Just as she was picking up her bicycle, she saw the rich woman who visited her bakery every Saturday morning. She was sitting on bench and relaxing. “What a life this woman has” Ani thought.

“She has everything! She has so much money! She always wears such lovely clothes and shoes. And she has pretty hand bags. And she always smells of perfume – and look at me, smelling of bread all the time. Look at her now! She is relaxing in the park, while here I am all tired, just waiting to reach my tiny apartment so that I can collapse on my bed.

How I wish, I had her life – even for a little while.”

And then as she rode on her bicycle she gave Maria a broad smile and waved her a “Good Evening” while she imagined herself enjoying the riches that Maria had.

“If I could make a birthday wish, I’d want that woman’s life” she murmured to herself as she gave Maria the happy smile.

And then in the evening as she sat by her window looking at the stars, the angel appeared and gave her the gift she wanted – Maria’s life.

Little had Ani known that Maria’s life was not an easy one – it was demanding, very demanding. The stressful mornings at home and then at work, skipped meals, meetings after meetings, painful discussions and never ending workload. She would think of work all the time – she was restless. Yes there were lovely clothes and shoes, but what’s the use of all those riches if you cannot enjoy them even for a moment! Ani did not like this life – she truly missed her bicycle. She missed baking with Merkel. She missed her apartment and the peace that came with it. Yes she was poor, but she had her friends, she had her bakery, and the smile on the faces of her customers would make her very happy. She missed all that.

So after five days of this craziness, as she entered her bakery on Saturday morning she felt a deep happiness as she smelt the bread. She looked at Maria and without saying a word, simply pleaded that she wanted her baker’s life back.

“So you see Maria – Ani wants her simple life back. Just the way you want your own life back.”

Maria smiled and agreed.

September 25^th 2016

Maria woke up in her large bedroom. It felt peaceful. She walked towards her dressing table and smiled – yes, she was Maria again. She had her life back.

She stretched a bit out of relief and walked out into the balcony. Down on the little street in front of her house she spotted Ani, who was happily riding away on her bicycle, with a large basket of baguettes. She turned back, slowed down and smiled at Maria with her happy “Good Morning”. Maria smiled back too, and this time she knew there was no pain behind either of their smiles.

They were both very happy women. They had realized that grass is indeed greener on the other side.

Happiness and peace never come to you – no matter how hard you try. Happiness and peace are a matter of choice. You choose to be happy, you choose to be peaceful.