Skip to main content

Happiness and India



India has got a miserable 140th place out of 156 nations surveyed by the World Happiness Report for happiness levels. Finland continues to hold number one position, followed by Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
The survey concludes that generosity and an environment which sustains mutual support keep people happy. The USA has the world’s highest GDP, the richest nation, but its rank in the happiness index is 19. Wealth doesn’t necessarily keep you happy. Happiness is a feeling created by people’s willingness to be of help to one another.
The government plays a vital role too. People alone cannot determine the prevalent mood in the country. The Happiness Report suggests that countries which improve civic engagement by making their government more representative will be happier.
India now has a government that has been promising us better days for about six years now. But the Report shows that we have dropped way behind Pakistan, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and even Bangladesh in happiness levels. When Mr Modi became the Prime Minister, India’s place in this index was far better: 117 in 2015. India kept sliding down ever since. Another four plus years to go under this leadership!
India should sit back and introspect. Is the present sort of nationalism doing any good to the country? Are we not on an entirely wrong track? What are we going to achieve by making India a Hindu nation? Isn’t it our duty as a nation to ensure better infrastructure and better standards of life to the citizens?
It’s a pity that India has leaders whose vision seems to stop at the ends of their noses. May better thoughts visit them sooner than later!


Comments

  1. SylendraJanuary 27, 2020 at 2:33 PM

    Poor us...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 27, 2020 at 2:39 PM

      Indeed. But we are still a democracy. We can throw these scums out.

      Delete
  2. Narender NethaJanuary 28, 2020 at 2:03 AM

    What is the yardstick for this comparison?
    Here is a case where India ranks 9th on happiness index among 28 nations.
    It all depends on the yardstick.

    To be happy comes from within and Indians know that very well. It is those with yardsticks that don't know. Maybe for happiness from outside materialism this ranking is valid. For the happiness from within, it is upto one to find out and be happy. India is the land that told the world how to be happy from within from ancient times. None can beat that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 28, 2020 at 6:29 AM

      Hypocrisy was raised to a virtue in India.

      Delete
    2. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 28, 2020 at 7:25 AM

      The parameters are given in the report. The link is in the post too.

      Delete
  3. samir sardanaJanuary 30, 2020 at 6:14 PM

    Happiness in the rape nation of the world !

    Rape is part of Religion and Culture !

    Sample the Dindoo Hindooo Religion

    https://dindooohindoo.page.tl/Vagina-Locks%2CRapes-%26-Dogs-and-Apes.htm

    If she should not grant him his desire, he should bribe her. If she still does not grant him his desire, he should hit her with a stick or with his hand, and overcome her, saying: ‘With power, with glory I take away your glory!’ Thus she becomes inglorious - id.est., raped ! Brihadâranyaka Upanishad VI:4:6. 7.

    The Indians have a way to stop rape !

    https://dindooohindoo.page.tl/Vagina-Locks%2CRapes-%26-Dogs-and-Apes.htm

    It is called Vagina Locks

    They place steel and alumunium locks on the vagina

    http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/man-arrested-for-keeping-wifes-private-parts-locked/769191
    http://uptownmagazine.com/2012/08/man-puts-an-actual-lock-and-key-on-his-wifes-vagina/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
35 comments
Read more

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...
10 comments
Read more

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...
4 comments
Read more

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...
13 comments
Read more

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...
8 comments
Read more