In Pursuit of happiness !!

Raghav,26, single, delhite , recently completed his Master of Business Administration from a reputed Business school of the country, got a high paying job with one of the most reputed mnc’s .Although he is not a ‘Saturday night is a party night ’ kind of person but he does goes out for movies with friends, hangout in cool cafes which have mushroomed all over the place in Delhi ncr. He lives with his parents and has a financially sound background. Reading the above mentioned description, you would wonder ‘aur kya chahiye bhai, life set hai’. Back to reality, thing is, though he has all the comforts of life at his disposal. He is not happy!!

Unfortunately this is the reality of youth in our country. We have become a nation of young, energetic, dynamic, intelligent, smart yet UNHAPPY people!!

Moment of Truth

According to the world happiness report 2016 which was published in march, India has been ranked 118 out of total 156 in the list of world’s happiest countries, down one slot from our last year ranking 117. Adding insult to injury is the fact that we are even behind our neighbours Pakistan, china and even Bangladesh. Just to highlight some facts, India comes below nations like Somalia (76), China (83), Pakistan (92), Iran (105), Palestinian Territories (108) and Bangladesh (110).

According to the report published by Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations, Denmark occupies the pole position. The report takes into account GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.

Opinion

In my opinion, it’s not a surprise. Most of people especially the youth are joining this mad race to earn more money rather than doing what they really like, in the process loosing the happiness in them.

Let’s take our protagonist raghav’s case for instance, he has done his engineering and has worked with an IT major for nearly two years .He went for MBA after seeing his friends/colleagues doing so, it wasn’t his need but his desire.

Once inside this B-school he found himself in this conundrum where the aim was to get marks and land a best possible high paying job. Unwantedly he joined it but even achieved the forced goal but has lost the zeal in him.

He loves to be in mountains, adores the peace and serenity of such places, where there is no urge to be active on whatsapp, instagram 24*7.Loves the celebrate the birthdays, anniversaries, other small get-togethers with friends and family but he is afraid once he enters the corporate setup once again he won’t get time to enjoy them all. As he sees it, all these adventures would have to take back seat once he starts running in this corporate mad race. As is the trend these days, he fancies visiting the beautiful places round the world once he has enough money, a well settled family, is free of his responsibilities. Till then, he would be searching, reading and posting about them on facebook with a caption: ’Added to my Bucket list ’. And yes he is expecting some likes as well from travel hungry netizens like you. No offense, just kidding!!

Well, Raghav’s concerns are not totally uncalled for. Study conducted by various agencies around the world reveal that with ever increasing competition, people are getting less time to be with their families. This has resulted in high level of stress among young professionals esp. in the age group 25-40. Consequently, we are left unsatisfied with whatever we do; we have our anger issues, family values are diminishing, increase levels of alcohol consumption and smoking.

A new beginning …

I am not trying to act as some guru giving some life lessons. All I want to say is that, at the end of the day we are just outrunning ourselves because we all have limited time. Leaving things for tomorrow is not helping our cause either. All this unhealthy competition will lead us to nowhere, if we want to live our dreams, all we have to do is try and become a better person than who we were yesterday, Do those things which give you happiness, live in moments of each day rather than taking solace of having bucket list, who knows you might not live so long to tick those!!

While writing this piece, I have made my mind that the best time to tick those items in bucket list is now. Because that’s what, will make me happy. I have begun my pursuit of happiness; I hope you too start doing it soon!