Happiness, what is it? Does it do good always?

Disclaimer: If you do want to think please don't read this post. It might be boring, read it at your own risk.

Last Sunday, I was talking to Gautham, a person whom I can talk freely about what is in my mind to some extent. It has been some time since we spoke to each other, as usual we had the usual gossip about our friends and other things for a while and then somehow went on to to muse about happiness.

Though it may see odd and you might think what the hell is there to discuss about happiness, it was an interesting one to me. After a long time Gautham made me put the thinking cap on, thanks Gautham.

So what is happiness? Is it a feeling? a state? Does it have a benchmark?

Happiness is a feeling which our mind yearns about, a state which each one of us will be happy to go into. Can we say for sure what will make us happy 1 year now?

Yeah maybe to some extent, but how accurate it will be? I had a dream that one day I should have a laptop of my own, an ultra modern one, and here I am having one. Though I am happy, I am not as happy as I thought I would be before I got it. for most of us, perhaps in many aspects of life, our mind wavers like this once it reaches in pre-defined goal. This yearning has indeed led to the advancement in technology and the progress we have made from the Classical age to the industrialized age we are in.

However this property of mind has left millions of people without a peace of mind, with jealously, with frustration and even in some cases hatred.

If I were asked to define happiness, I would define it as, "Happiness is a state of mind which a human wants to achieve, however once the state is reached, the standard for it is changed to a different state from the one we achieved just now."

One more question which came to my mind was whether happiness is directly proportional to the increase in civilization of mind, an improved society. I believe it is not always, because happiness is a state of mind which we covert to and a state which we desire because of the impact of the society and society's impact may not be the positive way always. However if we humans are happy, calm and serene we can think about the problems facing us and set out to solve them. So happiness is indeed positive to some extent.

And do we enjoy the state of happiness alone, don't we enjoy the challenges that we face, the depressions we have? I have sometimes enjoyed the ride, passionately and relentlessly worked on to come out of the difficult situations. Though I wasn't successful always I had worked hard and didn't feel dejected because everything is not under our control, or any other power, in this world filled with randomness.

In a nutshell, though my mind earns for happiness, I believe the Pursuit of happiness is a more interesting and satisfying after we have completed a stage of the journey. However it is a never ending journey, a journey which we all pursue till our last breath. And those who know their destination, plan the journey in stages and work hard for it will be satisfied and might do wonders to the society in many instances.

Though they may not reach their destination, those will be satisfied like the fox in this story.

The Naxal question

Our Prime Minster Mr.Manmohan Singh has stated Naxalism as “the greatest internal security threat to our country". And he also stated that, "“We are ready to talk with any group whether in Jammu and Kashmir or in naxal areas provided they shed the path of violence.”

Certainly some encouraging words in a perspective considering the recent increase in the Naxal insurgency. The attacks, ranging across Central India spanning from Jharkand & Bihar in West to Maharastra in the east, have increased both in number and violence.

Initially I was still not able to understand the sudden increase in number of attacks, is it because they are getting more funds, organized training from some where? And also why suddenly our Government is so much focused on eliminating these people when there even bigger problems and matters to negotiate.

Then it dawned on me that Central government was forced to act against these people who are a hindrance to the mining which is going to be carried out in Central India, for which contracts worth millions have been signed. Hence, if these people are there they won't be able to freely ravage the forest lands, for the land belongs to these people.

One needs to travel across decades to know the real intensity of the problem. The word Naxal has coined when in 1967, 20 years after India's independnce, a group of youth from the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal, frustrated by their poverty, impressed by Mao's ideals, staged attacks over the local lords and tried to seize control of the lands and secure it for the poor. With time many Naxal groups sprang into action and never at any point of history they was good coordination between the different groups.

To these people Independent India meant nothing, as the existence of Indian state had no effect on them, which continues to this day. They have not been given education, health coverage, bare them all they don't even have roads even to this day. Hence their question is, why should I give back my land to the Indian state, the land which is the means to my survival, the land which is God to me, which has not done anything to me so far, which doesn't seem to do any good in the future also.

Isn't their question valid? Their means are certainly questionable, they are lot of innocent people who have suffered a lot due to their acts, there is no denying it. They need to be rooted out for the existence of the Indian State.

However had the Government have functioned properly we would have avoided this bad situation, does the Prime Minister or the Home Minister accept publicly that, "Indian State is responsible for the sufferings the people of Central India are in."

Sometimes I ask myself this question, what exactly is this Indian state? It doesn't care for the people or their problems, all it cares about is that it must have a clean chit in the world.

I believe it's time we jump in to make sure that the Indian State functions as it needs to be. I will try to think of and discuss in coming weeks regarding what can be done from our side to make sure the State functions as it needs to be.