Don't worry; be happy!

India’s low rank on the World Happiness report should not dishearten us so

 

There was much angst on social media when the annual World Happiness Report was released recently, and revealed that India ranked a lowly 125 (out of 137) on the index. India’s position had improved from 136 in last year’s report, but it still came below its neighbours like Pakistan and Bangladesh. And strangely enough, even the two nations that are tearing themselves apart in a war – Russia and Ukraine – were ranked above India.

  

But even as pitched battles were fought on Twitter about how the questions asked in the survey were skewed towards Western societies, and how the survey was biased against India, an entirely different question was agitating my mind.

 

What does happiness actually mean? Is the definition the same for every person out there? Does it depend on extraneous factors? Or does happiness lie deep within ourselves? And is it up to each of us to excavate and find it? And in the context of the World Happiness Report, does it even make sense to try and measure happiness on a sliding scale when happiness is an ephemeral feeling rather than a readily quantifiable property? 

 

Of course, there are conventional markers for happiness: having a steady job, disposable income, a stable family life, good health. The presence of these may not necessarily make you happy but it would be fair to say that the absence of any (or all) of the above would make you actively unhappy. 

 

But if you were conducting a happiness audit on your own life, how would it go? What would be the things that contributed to your happiness? 

 

Speaking for myself, it is the small pleasures of life that make me happy. They may seem insignificant in themselves but they have an incremental effect, adding up inexorably to contribute to my sense of overall well-being. 

 

·       The pleasures of a good book. It doesn’t matter whether I am reading a physical book or on my Kindle app. It doesn’t matter if it is an improving tome or a bestselling thriller. As long as I have a good book to get stuck into, all is right with my world.

·       A few hours spent in nature. It doesn’t have to involve travelling to some scenic spot and marvelling at the mountains or exclaiming at the sea. It could be something as mundane as taking a walk in the park and exulting in the vibrancy of spring blooms, or watching the leaves of trees change colour with the seasons. Just breathing in some fresh air is all it takes for me to feel better.

·       Pottering in the kitchen. There is something so uniquely relaxing about mechanically chopping and cutting, meditatively stirring a pot on the stove, and being rewarded by a dish that lives up to the promise implied in its recipe. Not to mention, the pleasure involved in feeding those you love.

·       Writing for myself. By which, I mean the writing that is not meant for the eyes of others. Writing that is personal and private; writing that helps me negotiate my own feelings; writing that helps me make sense of my world. If I didn’t have that, nothing else would suffice to make me happy.

 

So yes, I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true. Real happiness comes not from outside, but from within. And how can you possibly measure that on an index?