Cheer Up, Kerala

The Manorama News Conclave 2017 explores ways to convert prosperity to happiness.

- Navin J. Antony

All men have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, wrote Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was an epicurean, but a pragmatist: He knew people will look for happiness, but he also knew that most people wouldn’t find it. Hence the guarantee, in the American constitution, of the right to “pursuit of happiness” and not of happiness itself.

A sharp-witted polymath, Jefferson would have fitted in with the host of eminent persons who graced the Manorama News Conclave on Happiness, the first of its kind conclave in Kerala held at Le Meridian in Kochi on June 3. Across several sessions of stimulating discussions, on themes as varied as governance and spirituality, and economy and arts, they shared their views on how Malayalis ought to pursue happiness.

The timing was appropriate: A survey conducted in the weeks leading up to the conclave had revealed that the happiness index of Malayalis stood at a dismal 4.4 out of 10. Most people worried about corruption and social security of the elderly. Apparently, the fact that most of them were satisfied with their health and living standards was not reassuring enough.

In the session titled ‘State of Happiness’, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar suggested that people did not realise that happiness was within them. “Someone asked me, in Los Angeles the other day, ‘What makes you happy?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ I am happiness.”