Are We Happier than Our Forefathers?

A hermit living in a hut may have such a lot of self-satisfaction. He serves people that attend him with words of high thoughts and advice on worthy living. He's a person in rags, eats whatever he gets as a charity, still he's ‘happy’. He doesn't have the ‘pleasures’ of life but he has the ‘happiness’ of his mind and soul.

We today have everything at our command, Science is at our beck and call. We've all the comforts of life which our ancestors never could even dream of. Means of transport, means of communication, means of entertainment — Cinema, T.V. with numerous channels — phones, E-mails, Fax, Internet and whatnot. Still, if you ask even the richest of men if he's really ‘happy’, he may shake his head to point out ‘no, not that’. There are worries, there are anxieties, there's no sense of satisfaction or contentment.

Men of the past had little but they lived to beat a joint family serving one another, each other in their needs sharing whatever they might produce or earn. They lived a lifetime of frugality but contentment. They worked hard and will have a sound sleep in the dark. The house housed cousins, brothers, uncles, aunts all under one roof. Now there are two-room cubicles in large busy towns no space even for folks to return and stay. There had been an affectionate bond binding beat the past; there's a distance now even among the brothers. ‘What is that this life so filled with care’ is what is often said of today’s living.

By: Jyoti Nayak

School Name: Birla School, Pilani