117 out of 158 countries?
For a moment, I am not able to believe my eyes. We are the second most developing country in the world, one of the largest economies, the greatest youth work force and we are talking big things about India shining and Make in India and what not.
But hey, the stats don’t lie. The world happiness index says that India is ranked 117 out of 158 countries in the world. That means we are ahead of only a handful of 41 nations. Phew! I thought there were more underdeveloped nations which had bigger problems than India did! But let us try and see why we are placed so low in the happiness index. It is one thing about blaming the government and completely the other thing about personal happiness index. Forgetting all those factors which are on the governmental aspect, let us look at the personal aspect a bit.
How do we define our happiness? Are we all totally happy? If not what would make us that happy?
A point to ponder isn’t it? Almost all of us know what we really hate. If I were to ask what were the things bothering us at this moment of time, a few answers can be these
– I am not able to find a satisfactory job for my clarifications
– I am not able to financially support my family
– The society doesn’t seem to approve what I am doing
– I am not able to find a suitable girl to marry
and so on. We would actually be surprised to see how easy it is to make us unhappy and how high standards we set for ourselves to be happy. People can be unhappy for as trivial a reason as not having enough salt in their food. I am not asking to reduce someone’s standards or elevate them, I am just asking, where we set our priorities and how they matter to us. The more restrictions we have to be happy, the more reasons do we find to be unhappy. Simple isn’t it?
There are so many simple things that can make us happy,
– The beautiful breeze on a warm summer night
– A light tune of an old song we love in the background
– The smile of a stranger who we haven’t seen at all in our entire life
– A mail from an old friend with whom it had been ages since we talked
– An old rustic photograph of you in black and white..
And so on. Fact is, it is really not that difficult to be happy. We all are so caught up in leading a perfect life that we sometimes don’t see that a perfect life and a happy life are two separate things. You can still be hungry for more in life and yet be happy about what you do. You can still feel great about yourself and kick yourself to do more. It has been too mutually exclusive so far. Maybe it is time that we design our lives the way we want them, maybe define our lives and happiness the way it is actually achievable and simple and easy to reach.
The harder it gets, the more we suffer. It really isn’t that difficult to be happy. Just try it once :).
PS: Well sorry to disappoint the ones who were looking for stats of the world happiness report, you can find more of the report here – India Today.
Or for the basic definition of World Happiness and how it is measured, you can refer the wiki page here
This was just out interpretation of how happiness can be closer than we realized. Always open to your thoughts and opinions. Do let us know below :)
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I found that statistic interesting and dismaying. Despite all the progress, we are so unhappy. Yes, we can strive for happiness but it is difficult to do so when the struggles in life are too many. Often, society aggravates the pain instead of being the community that helps.
Population – need to earn better – competition, stress and thus no happiness…where is the time to be happy….for that time needs to be spent with real people and all i see is heads stuck to handphones :) another awesome post and thought provoking too!
Thank you Lata. It sometimes gets to me when people have a big fancy definition of happiness.. I mean that is ambitiion, it has got nothing much to do with happiness right?
This is a very interesting one Hemu – A happy planet index?! HPI.. On one hand I really like that they consider the ecological factor which I think is missed by the world happiness report. On the other hand I am not sure cos they have ignored the social and political rights. As in, the riots, the activities by the fundamentalists, being forced into religious and political decisions are kinda ignored which forms a basic structure of freedom. So I am not sure which one to believe in completely.. I guess it goes on to form an interesting debate though..
No need of checking the info in India Today, we can experience it on a daily basis. Whenever we talk to our near and dear ones, there is so much to discuss and we only talk about the bad(s) of life. Well if anyone follows ‘The Secret’ will understand the influence of law of attraction. I do and I believe in focusing on only the good, so the good follows. What say Vinay? Superb, that you bring this topic here and well mentioned :)
True that Tara. really unfortunate isn’t it? I mean there is so much of negativity around that it feels as if the world itself has changed and I hear people complaining about that too. I mean it is as simple as that right – what we see is what we reflect on and the more we reflect on the negative, the more we wallow in it and do not come out of it;.. In the end it just becomes a futile exercise and we feel bad about it..
It is a great attitude to focus on the good Tara, it is kinda like being in control of what we see and what we choose to think about. And in the end it is all about leading a happy life which is a beautiful approach.. Thank you for the words from ‘Secret’, they are a great value add..
A thought provoking article!!!! as usual kudos sir
Thank you Bindu. I am really happy to see more of your thoughts here. I want to get back to writing on insights again. Things are gettting awfully busy here. Hope I should be able to come up with a post atleast next week.
Oh! I can so relate to those simple happy things you’ve stated Vinay….they are enough reasons for me to be happy. I think happiness is something we must learn to earn for ourselves, but most of the times, we try to buy it….
Thank you Maniparna. I think happiness sometimes is overrated, people have a huge list of things to be happy or to say that they are happy – maybe they are trying to be modest or trying to show that they come from a breed who are in complete emotional control of themselves.. I don’t really understand that either – we feel what we feel, there is nothing more to it is there. And probably that more is just that what we do about what we feel and everything else just takes the backstage..