Indians: a confusing mixture of unhappiness and optimism.

Every year the United Nations releases a list of countries according to a ' Happiness Index '. India ranks a miserable 117 out of 158 countries. Switzerland comes in at number one. The index is based on seven criteria. Social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity are probably linked to GDP per capita. With a population of 1.25 billion India has vast numbers of poor people but awareness has increased dramatically due to the ubiquity of televisions and the rising use of the internet. Young people are rejecting the frugal lifestyle of their parents and are demanding good jobs so that they enjoy the material comforts of new technology. If Indians are so unhappy why are they so optimistic? Indians had an overall score of 82.1% in optimism as opposed to 57.2% for the rest of the Asia Pacific region. On the quality of life index Indians scored 84.1% as compared to 51.7% and on expectation of employment Indians scored 78.3% compared to 54% for the rest of the region. Is it because we believe that we are right at the bottom and the only way can be upwards? Perhaps we are unhappy because we have a high perception of corruption and hence an expectation of dystopia. As opposed to utopia, ' dystopia ' is a society where life is bad due to deprivation, oppression and terror. Terror attacks are common in India with 190 IED explosions in 2014. This is because for some unknown mysterious reason we continue to hold ' constructive dialogues ' with Pakistan even though it is determined to bleed us through ' a thousand cuts '. The irony is that the US, which keeps blowing up Pakistani civilians with drone attacks, offers to mediate in the ' constructive dialogue '. But much worse than terrorist attacks is the oppression we suffer at the hands of our rulers - the politicians, the civil servants and our judicial system. In a continuation of the rotten feudal system of the past politicians have made themselves into VIPs and VVIPs. Neither they nor their families are searched at airports which allows them ample opportunity to smuggle in whatever they want. They are so lacking in any sharam or izzat in that they wanted the government not to pass laws making it mandatory to declare PAN number in any transaction involving Rs 100,000 in cash and a 10 year jail sentence for not disclosing illicit money stashed abroad. Their criminal behavior is helped by our judicial system which allows a convicted murderer, serving a life sentence, to be freed on ' furlough ' to get married because the fellow is the son of a politician ' Furlough ' is a leave of absence usually given to soldiers not to a filthy murderer. That is why we Indians are so unhappy but we are optimistic in the hope that one day the villains will be destroyed.