Happy that we don't have to be happy

We are happy to share our views of the 2023 World Happiness Report. First, the good news. In this survey-based report involving more than a lakh people from over 137 countries, human kindness has been found to have significantly increased, and people are as content with their lives as they were before the pandemic. This doesn’t mean that the grouchy neighbour of yours started smiling at you from last year. Neither does it mean that the chap you fired from his job last summer is no longer on antidepressants. It is, what economists and people who fudge facts call, an average view of things.

Now, the not-so-good news. India is 126th in the happiness world ranking of 137 countries. We know that this very piece of information is making you very cheesed off – and, thereby, confirming the very ‘fact‘ you wish to write off as ‘Western conspiracy’. But, then, what do those people know of the happiness of being discontent? After all, saying one is happy does not mean one is happy – it could jolly well mean that one doesn’t recognise unhappiness even if it came wearing a pair of pink flares. Also, denial is a powerful force. So, when we’re told that Finland is the happiest country and Afghanistan is the unhappiest, consider the possibility that being sad is a social taboo among Finns and that the Taliban (all men) seem more than content.