North and south are poised often at opposite ends of prosperity. But they switch places when it comes to a sense of happiness felt by the young, says an MTV study. In their perception of being happy, India’s bindas brigade is reported to be way ahead of the world’s bratpack – they may be broke (kadka) but brokenhearted they are not. Indian youngsters are also said to be more devout and seemed extremely gung-ho about their future prospects. On the other end of the scale, Japanese youth described themselves as utterly miserable even as thy lolled in the lap of luxury.

Earlier, a study by a UK-based think tank also reported something similar: The New Economic Foundation which complies the happy planet index (HPI) described India as being ‘much ahead of USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and even Canada in happiness index”. Paradoxically, India seemed to fare a lot better than most other countries whose economic growth and human development indicators were at the top.

Curiously, three-fourth of the Nipponese neophytes in the MTV survey admitted to having no religious compass at all. Did that mean in order to be happy you had to be connected whether spiritually, religiously or socially? Connectivity confers a reassuring sense of reciprocity. But belief (shraddha) seems crucial as also patience (saburi), to quote Shirdi Saibaba’s mantra.

 Such a linkage is often entwined with a seemingly innate sense of morality and right and wrong. We transgress it at our own peril. In the 1920s, for example, the great developmental psychologist Jean Piaget found that as children develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of right and wrong, they also go through a phase in which many rules of conduct acquire a sacred or inviolable aspect. During this phase, the youngsters begin to believe in ‘immanent justice’, which Piaget said was rooted or inherent in an act itself. That’s how our daily routines and rituals got their talismanic power.

The flip side of such behaviour is that it can also lead to superstition or obsessive compulsiveness. The belief that God or fate will dole out just rewards or desserts for good and bad behaviour, thus seems to be cosmic extension of our childhood belief in immanent justice, says social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book Happiness Hypothesis, which itself is part of our all-too-human fixation with reciprocity.