The Hindu Business Line : Measuring happiness

Sometimes, even the gloomiest of days can yield surprises which lead to mental comfort of the very highest order. One such day was Tuesday in Kolkata, the rains having set their teeth deep into the city’s life, disrupting it no end. Even the morning’s newspapers failed to arrive.

Rummaging through a pile, one chanced upon the Sunday edition of The Hindu and began reading, in the magazine section, an essay on an outing at Wimbledon, a bit of writing which was as refreshing as it was indicative of the fact tha t — even in these harried times — one can relax completely amongst the ideas and images thrown up by evocative, well-sculpted newspaper articles. In a word, one felt simply happy and content going through the piece, perhaps because of the fact that it also harped on the theme of rain, which had already filled my mind since early in the morning.

Index of contentment

Imagine the scale of the coincidence when, after Wimbledon, my eyes fell on a heading which read, “In quest of the nature of happiness,” the report focusing on a project which is trying to build an ‘index of happiness’, the aim being to measure more accurately the contentment of people, the feeling of being happy and satisfied, than through indices such as per capita GDP. I immediately asked myself the question whether the enjoyment I had just derived after reading the Wimbledon article was in any way related to my vanishing net worth or the model of the car the office had allotted to me for my use.

Further, was the sense of attachment between me and my dogs in any way related to how much my office paid me for my services? The sense of togetherness with my wife and children, or the sight of greenery through the window — even through there is a rubbish dump just across the road? And then I thought about people living in the villages, and the sound of laughter among both adults and children when work in the fields was over and it was time to rest?

What, indeed, has per capita income to do with happiness and contentment? Indeed, when in love, can one argue that per capita income determines the intensity of the attachment? Yes, he cannot buy a diamond for his beloved, but surely he can hold her hands and, in the process, get himself transported to another world? A poor person cannot have dinner at a topnotch restaurant, but he can perhaps enjoy even more a meal he has with friends at a roadside eatery.

Social Milieu

Both theoretically and practically, the poor can be happier and more satisfied with life than the billionaire. In fact, it is the social milieu in which one finds oneself that determines to a large extent how he or she finds happiness and contentment. But the quality of the feeling of happiness is in no way related to material well-being or the absence of it.

How, then, does one go about compiling an ‘index of happiness’ which can used to compare contentment among peoples and economies? As the OECD secretary-general has asked: “How well informed are in fact the leaders about what people want, feel and believe? We must seek tools that can improve rational policy-making?”

The journey is just beginning — and it will probably be futile. An index depends on the ability to quantify, and happiness cannot be quantified.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY