UN survey says Pakistanis are apparently happier than Indians. We know why!

Before we start, this is not a report of a private university/think tank/lifestyle-and-wellness centre that we can just shred into pieces.

The United Nations, whose Security Council wants to proscribe Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar, has found that Pakistanis are actually a lot happier than Indians.

Wait a second before you rush to tweet your utter disbelief and outrage.

This was the case in 2017 as well.

Pakistanis are actually happier than Indians.

What’s new this year is that while Pakistan has progressed in this global happiness ranking further, India has not.

That’s okay. (Jobs and all, you can say).

But Pakistan is even happier than the poster boy of happiness in South Asia, Bhutan, which has gross national happiness instead of gross domestic product.

Really?

How can that even be possible?

This actually makes Pakistan (67) the happiest country in South Asia — surpassing Bhutan (95), Bangladesh (125), Sri Lanka (130) and India (140).

How is this even real? 

(We can’t even say that many Pakistanis are possibly high on Afghanistan's drugs as Afghanistan is quite a loser in this happiness chart!)

Jokes apart, what’s making Pakistanis so happy?

This World Happiness Report arrives at the happiness level by combining various quantitative data, such as per capita GDP growth, and qualitative data, such as social support, freedom to make life choices and perceptions of corruption.

Now, seriously — do we have to believe that Pakistan fares better than India in all these spheres? In GDP? In perceptions of corruption? Also, what is the 'freedom to make life choices' in Pakistan? Were the Pakistanis who answered the UN's questions free to answer on their own? We really wonder!

The gap between India and Pakistan is so huge that we can't blame one miscalculation. There must be plenty. Like, the sample size can’t be the same for a country with a 204-million population and one with a 1.37-billion population.

Cash-strapped, knee-deep in debt, globally suspected, a terror tinderbox — yet, the happiest?

Is this happiness because the eye of the storm remains the calmest?

Or simply because money can't buy happiness?

Also Read: Pakistan elects the gulab jamun as its national sweet: Here's why we're not biting into this entirely