Happy to give

Getting to the heart of two recent messages to the country, from its leaders

Calendar years come, calendar years go. But then between December 31 and January 1 something happens 8212; the celebratory fuss. Ritual wish-making for the year ahead is one of those practices that sustain our ephemeras. And there must be a misbelief somewhere that starting a calendar year on a note of joy is a year well-begun, and what is well-begun is8230; To this belief is married industry, which cashes in on people8217;s vague yearly need for fun. It goes such a long way in making people feel inconsequentially good.

This time round, though, something of consequence came our way amidst our well-rehearsed convivial stances 8212; messages from two big heads and hearts of India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Kalam. The PM, greeting the people on New Year, talked of the upward curve of the economy and wanted the prosperity to be inclusive and bring succour to the weaker sections of society as he saw the start of 2007 as an opportunity for the consolidation of past gains.

While the PM wished his economics to be inclusive, the president was attempting to get us in touch with what macroeconomics can happily miss. The president asked his fellow citizens to spread happiness 8220;by sharing knowledge, removing pain and giving part of one8217;s rightful earning8230;8221; 8220;Happiness will spread everywhere, if citizens of our country decide to give. Giving gives happiness,8221; Kalam exhorted.

Both were locating the ground for happiness in their own ways. Every new year we remember to give ourselves happiness by wishing each other oodles of it in the 364 days ahead. But happiness takes doing 8212; which is giving.

Nothing, of course, seems amiss when we live for ourselves 8212; in the midst of others and, in ever-so-subtle ways, with the help of others. With negligible exceptions, we all take and thereby thrive and believably become happy. Man8217;s gregarious instinct may not be flawed here, but it looks rather tangled as it runs along the twain of give and take.

Happiness, they say, belongs in the art of living 8212; in the art of giving as the president8217;s three riveting words reminded us. Happiness cannot be administered. It cannot wholly come of a dismal exercise in number-crunching or regulations from ministries.

The PM knows the wealth of his nation, its resources; and its well-being is in his heart. The president reached for some of the intangibles in the resources; his exhortation is more remarkable but is equally liable to be missed like many official messages aired and printed.

Story continues below this ad

What we give others by way of our practised wish-making at such midnights every year is not enough, given India8217;s gaping chasm between the haves and have-nots. And to tell us this, it needed a rocket scientist. Will we in 2007 remember Kalam8217;s pithy words about our gregarious destiny 8212; giving gives happiness? Only when this happens will our ten per cent growth trajectory appear meaningful.