What makes us happy?
Of late, there has been considerable criticism of the news business. Those in the establishment in the West and in India have suggested we are unfair, biased and a little too interested in “negative” news.
We in the media business have been called purveyors of fake facts, uninformed biases and personal agendas. But as a journalist for over 40 years, I can only say we reflect the society we live in, and the times we are going through. If there is violence, it is our duty to report it; if there is corruption, it is our job to expose it; and if there is incompetence or inefficiency, to flag it. This often makes the powerful uncomfortable and angry.
Unfortunately, the tendency to malign the mainstream media is backed by the power of social media where everyone thinks he or she is a journalist. Like in any other profession, the media makes mistakes and has some bad apples, but a free and responsible press is essential for a functioning democracy. I can proudly say, by and large, the mainstream media in India has been responsible. With today’s intense scrutiny from the powers-that-be and social media, the onus is on the media to get its facts right.
Having said that, I will admit that the mainstream media does tend to focus more on what may be termed negative news, whether it is violent events, natural disasters and scandals rather than stories of achievement, hope and aspiration. It was with this thought that we began the Good News Issue in 2016, to highlight stories that fall through the cracks of our everyday news grind.
In this issue, too, we feature people of various backgrounds who all have one thing in common: they like to fix things, helping change millions of lives. Like Umesh Malhotra, an IIT Madras graduate, whose learning centres give 11,000 children affordable, quality, pre-school education from 600 teachers in 285 schools. Or Shameek Chakravarty, Gitanjali Rajamani and Sudaakeran Balasubramanian, who launched Farmizen to supply organic vegetables to customers from farms that customers themselves manage through a mobile app. Or Ankit Mehta, who co-founded Ideaforge Technologies, and is making drones to be used by major security forces to rescue people during calamities.
Executive editor Damayanti Datta, who curated this issue, has done an accompanying story on the science and art of happiness. Happiness, she says, is galvanising top universities across the world to study it. Equally, governments are no longer content to examine the progress of their people through GDP data. The corporate world is hiring chief happiness officers. Google has a resident "Jolly Good Fellow" to promote emotional intelligence. Consciousness lecturers are doing the rounds, from TED to Davos. How to achieve a state of constant happiness is the new obsession, but it is an elusive bird to catch.
As noted author Yuval Noah Harari has said, the glass ceiling of happiness is held up by two pillars, one psychological and the other biological. Says Harari, “On the psychological level, happiness depends on expectations rather than objective conditions. We don’t become satisfied by leading a peaceful and prosperous existence. Rather, we become satisfied when reality matches our expectations. The bad news is that as conditions improve so do expectations.”
So, it is common to find that developed countries have higher suicide rates than poorer countries. Obviously, economic well-being is not the panacea for happiness. Unfortunately, India ranks a low 122nd among 155 countries in the UN’s World Happiness Report 2017 - a drop of 10 points from 2012.
Yet, the pursuit of happiness continues.
In Andhra Pradesh, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is dreaming of retrofitting the ancient city of Amaravati for happiness. “It will be a happy city,” he has declared of his prospective capital. Madhya Pradesh, India’s first state to set up a Department of Happiness, held a week-long Happiness Festival and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is tying up with IIT Kharagpur’s brand new “happiness lab”, to chalk out a Happiness Index. Mental wellness is emerging as the next big frontier of research. Soon, we will not only know what makes us happy, but also how to achieve that state. Now that’s a good news story that makes me happy.
Have a great new year filled with happiness, well-being, wisdom and wonder.
(India Today Editor-in-Chief's note for cover story, What makes us happy; January 15, 2018.)