The secret of true happiness

• VITHAL C NADKARNI

AFTER decades of languishing in the shadow of conditions such as depression and anxiety, happiness research has now emerged as a sun-rise industry. Academia was quick to set the mood, what with ‘Psychology 1504’ becoming the most popular course at Harvard followed by dozens of happiness institutes lighting up the world map like so many smile buttons. Even a man whose name rhymes with whiner and who’s a self-confessed curmudgeon can now write a slight book called The Geography of Bliss, which promptly goes on to become a best-seller! The writer says this only shows that everybody and their uncle want to learn about how to hit that royal road to happiness, preferably with a special short-cut personally endorsed by a born-again Anandanaut with a celeb in tow. (Nor should that word compounded from Ananda, Sanskrit for bliss, melded with a nautical noun seem too inappropriate, because scientists have already used the Sanskrit term to name a happiness molecule found in the human body.) Incidentally, Weiner told his audience at a bookstore that Republicans were happier than Democrats and that matrimony was a better state than being single as far as happiness was concerned. People with children were said to be no happier than childless couples, and people with college degrees were found to be happier than those without, again with the rider that folks with advanced degrees were less happy than those with just a Bachelors’. Notwithstanding all that it’s a no-brainer to say that people with an active sex life are happier than those without. Women and men are equally happy, though women have a wider emotional range. People are least happy when they’re commuting to work. Busy people are happier than those with too little to do. Wealthier people are happier than poor people, but only slightly, Weiner, a Washington-based foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, explained. But getting a reliable measure of happiness remains a major challenge mainly because it involves hard-to-quantify subjective elements. Researchers have also found that married people who have the happiest relationships get most of their needs met most of the time. In order to have your needs met, however, you must also realise what they are and be able to assert them. But be balanced. Don’t depend too much on others for meeting your