Category: Musings

In Pursuit of Happiness

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 2 Comments

March 20 has been celebrated as the International Day of Happiness following its proclamation, in 2013, by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a way to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world.

Bhutan gave us the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a new approach to development which measures prosperity through formal principles of gross national happiness (GNH) and the spiritual, physical, social and environmental health of its citizens and natural environment. The Bhutanese government believes that every citizen’s pursuit of happiness is its main goal. This goal is actually enshrined in article 9 of the country’s constitution.

Another country that joined the race for happiness is Venezuela who has reportedly created a Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness in 2013.

In 2016 the UAE announced a National Happiness and Positivity Programme which consists of five pillars: the science of happiness and positivity, mindfulness, leading a happy team, happiness and policies in government work, and measuring happiness. It appointed a Minister of State for Happiness and also a number of Happiness Officers who would be trained at the University of California, Berkeley and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre of the University of Oxford, two of several international partners enlisted by the UAE government to ensure the success of its programme.

Closer to home, Madhya Pradesh is reported to be the first and only state in India to have created a department of happiness to boost the wellbeing of its citizens, and appointed a Minister for Happiness.

Time was, not all that long ago, when happiness was not measured by data and official policies. Happiness was not analysed and planned; it was not pursued under any DIY guidelines or international training programmes.

Rather happiness was what you felt (and not all the time), what you shared with your family and friends—not through ‘events’ and slogans, but over a family meal; exchanged lunch boxes in the school recess; through letters and cards, and other simple joys of life. The same was done when one was feeling sad, or tense or confused. It was a time before emoticons summed up the way we felt.

The 2018 theme for International Day of Happiness is Home. In keeping with the times, sharing an online recipe for making a happy day!

Smile, share, eat healthily, exercise, be grateful, give back, think positively, spend some time with friends and family, spend some time alone, be mindful, dream, listen to music, say thank you and mean it, compete, be charitable, say “all the more” instead of “nonetheless” – you get it. Do what makes you happy. https://happinessday.org/

In the meanwhile–from the global to the local–it had been reported that the minister for Happiness in Madhya Pradesh, whose arrest had been ordered by the court on charges of murder, had gone missing. Last heard of, the police were in hot pursuit of Shri Happiness!

–Mamata

Writing Poetry

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

The only other time

Ever I wrote poetry

Was when I was fifteen

 

And pretty awful poetry it was

Generally whiny and confused

Written in a fit of anger

Against the world (as personified by my mother or teacher)

Or from the depths of despondency

(After a ‘I’ll never talk to you’ fight with a best friend)

 

Never did it rhyme

Have a spark of originality

Or rhythm

Or any redeeming grace

 

Now that I am fifty five (plus!)

I find myself writing poetry again

As awful as before

As whiny and confused

As graceless—if slightly better spelt!

 

Second childhood I have heard of,

But why did no one warn me

That adolescence and the mid-life crisis

Have so much in common?

-Meena

Nose No-Nos

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 3 Comments

So now plastic surgeons (that’s what they were called in our days) are being asked to ‘fix’ noses so that they look good on selfies! It’s not enough to use all the technology the digital wonders provide to shape and mould, and shade and light our faces to look oh so picture perfect in every selfie, pelfie, helfie, welfie and ussie (no I did not make those up!)  taken every moment of our waking lives!  According to a 2017 poll, 55 percent of facial plastic surgeons reported seeing patients who wanted surgeries to help them look better in selfies, up from 13 percent in 2016.

Researchers are working out mathematical models to help describe how selfie cameras distort the face. They found that when taken 12 inches away, selfies increase nose sizes by 30 percent in men and 29 percent in women compared to photos taken five feet away, a standard portrait distance. And yet, in the quest for the perfect picture, cosmetic surgery is seen as the perfect answer.

What an unimaginably narcissist society we have become! Time was when noses were a distinguishing feature of one’s face. We were born with them, and we lived with them. Maternal and paternal aunts would argue about whether the new baby had the father’s nose or the mother’s nose. Characters in stories were described by their noses—the handsome hero with the Roman nose, the wicked hook-nosed witch, the cute button-nosed toddler….

When my daughter was born, my paternal aunt told me that I needed to pull her wee little nose every day to give it shape and substance. That was almost 30 years ago. Last week daughter and I took an ussie. And she looked at it and said “Mama, you and I are both growing into Grandfather’s nose!” Like it or not that’s our heritage, and makes us uniquely what we are!

–Mamata

 

 

 

 

 

DISTANCES ARE MEASURED IN?

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 3 Comments

How strange to live in a world (or shall I say, a city)

Where distances are measured not in units of length

But in units of time!!

So that when Kiran says

“I am at Bannerghatta. How far is your place?’

I say not ’10 kms or 12 kms’

But ’40 minutes–keep your fingers crossed.’

 

And distances depend on time of day and day of week!

So that when Pramod asks me on a Sunday afternoon

‘How long will it take me to get to your place?’

I say ‘I will put on the tea. You can be here in 10 minutes.’

But when his wife calls on Tuesday evening and asks me the same question,

I say ‘Oh, oh! Our other guests will be here in 15 minutes,

And its going to take you at least 45!’

 

They also depend on time of year

For after the monsoons, when the roads are more holes than road,

A 1 km stretch is a 15 minute ride

While in winter, with the roads freshly—if superficially—done up,

It is a whiz-past of 2 minutes!

 

And did you know, distances depend on who is in town?

For when the PM or the FM or any other M visits,

We count distances in hours, not in minutes.

 

My science teacher, who poor soul,

Lived in as high an ivory tower as is possible,

Will be most deeply disturbed

Because it seems

That nothing is absolute anymore!

–Meena