Happiness is a state of mind

The World Happiness Report 2023 was published a few weeks ago and I was as surprised to read it this time as I have over the past couple of years My surprise stemmed from the fact that the worldrsquos most amazing countrymdashIndia for those of you who havenrsquot been paying attentionmdashis currently positioned at 126 out of 146 countries How was this possible I asked myself looking up to see nothing but smiling faces all around I couldnrsquot recall the last time I saw an Indian person without a smile on his or her face so this made no sense at all Still with my commitment to research I read onWe have a Happiness score of 4036 apparently classifying our beloved nation as one of the worldrsquos least joyful More surprisingly we rank lower than our neighbours Bangladesh Nepal and China I almost threw the report away in disgust at that point because it was obvious that the whole thing was fictionalMy instinct was to dismiss it as propaganda when I found out that it was published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network a global initiative of the United Nations Most Indians know that the UN has been biased towards India since around 2014 It was biased even before that year of course but we just hadnrsquot noticed because we were too busy trying to survive without food water electricity healthcare and basic infrastructure all of which came to our country only in 2014 Itrsquos also possible that none of us noticed the report because we didnrsquot have the tools Only a few hundred Indians could read or write before 2014 which is when our first colleges and universities began to come up so this con job could have been going on for years So naturally I rubbished the reportOut of perverse curiosity I examined the reasons for this low score I found that the drop in our happiness levels was attributed to what the publishers called an lsquoescalating mental health crisisrsquo supposedly exacerbated by challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic Reader I am not ashamed to admit that I laughed out loud because the words lsquomental health crisisrsquo have never appeared in India before In fact I would go so far as to say that we have the most robust mental health on the planet and everyone knows we had no issues tackling the pandemic No one died there were no shortages of hospital beds or oxygen cylinders and the sudden shutdowns imposed upon millions of us were met with good cheer and applause If anything I would argue that the pandemic made us a happier nation than we already wereThere were other red flags Apparently the report cites experts from various fields such as psychology economics survey analysis and national statistics all of whom discuss how lsquowellbeing measurementsrsquo can be used to gauge a nationrsquos progress This upset me because everyone knows experts arenrsquot qualified to talk about India unless they come from India and are certified by the government of India Experts who arenrsquot trained in elite institutions such as the University of Gujarat and do not graduate with elite degrees such as a Masterrsquos in Entire Political Science shouldnrsquot be allowed to comment on anything to do with what happens in IndiaI tried flipping the script and looked at what the report had to say about the worldrsquos happiest countries It listed a few common themes such as worklife balance a strong connection to nature equality strong social support freedom and trust That was when I definitively knew the report deserved to be junked Consider my counterarguments India doesnrsquot struggle with worklife balance because few of us have access to good jobs which means a majority of us are dealing with a lsquolifelife balancersquo India has a stronger connection to nature than any other country because we handpick only one or two corporations from Gujarat and task them with protecting our forests and land I donrsquot want to comment on equality because everyone knows that rare instances of inequality crop up only when it comes to minorities Dalits farmers students and womenFinally freedom and trust we have freedom coming out of our ears and trust our government with our lives If we didnrsquot we would be abandoning our principles of democracy and teetering towards fascism wouldnrsquot we We are happier than we have ever been and I hope the government soon publishes its own report to prove thisWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper