Happy Endings

Life is beautiful. While Darwin taught us that the fittest survive, I think it was Sir Richard Attenborough who said in Jurassic Park, "Life will find a way". There are at this point in time, about 6.2 billion people on earth, most of whom are finding a way out of poverty and eking a livelihood.
I'd like to mention two of these from one profession, both masseuses. I came across both in chance encounters, not going to them for their profession, but rather chatting with them as part of my education in anthropology and the fact that people pour their hearts out to me so much, to make me sometimes suspect that I don't have a face but instead, a large sympathetic ear in its place.
One was, let's call her Y from China. Y is a divorcee with a 6 year old son. She worked in a bank in the Eastern provinces of China, I forget where now. She turned to giving massages with a happy ending to tourists into Hong Kong. I remember her face when she narrated what she does, saying "I don't like it, I don't like it" with a grimace. When I asked her why she still does it, she said "I want to pay for my own house". She has a boyfriend working for the HK S.A.R. government who does not know what she does and she hopes they will get married someday. I wish her well. Another is T from Mumbai, someone who worked with a transport company in a clerical position and was lured by an advertisement promising, yes, a royal pay packet of US $ 300 p.m. She has a family of 5, her father, mother, a younger brother and sister. She did not know what a "happy ending" massage entailed (for the uninitiated - a happy ending is a hand job) and said that she does this because she would not like her sister to be in the same profession and she feels responsible for the family. She offered me her services, saying she will do a "handshake", but I politely refused and hoped god will bless her, while shaking her hand.
The lives of 6.2 billion people must be worth something. I don't know how many of these lives are motivated with the need to achieve something, in their own way, all must be. For some, it may be survival, like the children who beg at Mumbai's traffic lights and who may be getting beaten black and blue if they fail to earn. There are others who feel a sense of responsibility, like T, who I think could have just said "F" it, my father should worry about being the breadwinner. And there are others like Y who chase a dream, her own house.
With different upbringings, or social contexts or different brain-wiring, these motives in life would differ. More than 9 out of 10 movies that I have seen have had a happy ending. For T and Y, and the children on Mumbai's streets, I hope that they have a Happy ending and their Life will find a way.