In their pursuit to understand why some people live
healthier and longer lives, and after chasing several measurable parameters such
as blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, uric acid and smoking for over
half a century, medical scientists are now tumbling upon an esoteric factor
that has been conspicuously missing from medical books, called ‘happiness’ that
could hold the key to our wellness.
Happiness is quite like the hippo in the zoo. When you
see it you can easily recognize it, but when someone asks you to describe it,
it is not easy. It does not have the distinctive features like an elephant’s trunk
or a leopards spots. And yet when you try counting people in office who are
happy, or occasions when you have been happy, you know exactly who or what they
are!
Funny as it might sound, the arrival of “happiness”
as a medical factor affecting our lives probably started when a group of German
pragmatists tried to beat the Americans at their habit of measuring every aspect
of life with dollar as the common denominator, in their own backyard by whipping out
stats that many with piles of money were not necessarily living great lives.
Despite their limousines, liquors and lavish means, the frequency of drugs,
divorce, and deaths due to suicides and murders were often disproportionately
high. Why else would youngsters go berserk every few weeks and go on shooting
sprees killing innocent kids in schools and campuses?
If you have started chuckling tauntingly at the
Americans for their dollar-obsession, just hold on. Let us see how we Indians, with our multitude
of faiths, philosophies, festivals, and even our recent Santa-Banta fare
against them and others in the world. The World Values Surveys samples
populations from 97 nations to see how happy and satisfied they feel, and rank them
from the most to the least happy, based on scores from +4.24 to -1.92. Sadly,
despite our rich philosophical heritage India ranked 67 with a measly score
0.85!
The irony gets worse as India is the place where Hasya
yoga or laughter yoga is thought to have originated. Also, it was an Indian
doctor from Mumbai, Madan Kataria, who started a laughter movement in 1995 that
has become global, spanning 70 countries with 7000 laughter clubs, which I discovered in
faraway Melbourne, Australia during a visit there!
In recent times, “Wellness”has become the new watch
word in Indian media hogging up space next only to scams, disasters, crime and
sports.The pursuit of “Wellness” needs a top-down approach, beginning with
Happiness at its fountain head, and steering our
attitudes and feelings to positive zones, before we turn our attention to the heart,
muscles, skin, and bowels.
A daily dose of happiness could be far more
effective than the proverbial apple in keeping the doctor away. Try it.
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 30th March, 2014.
