Indexes for Personal Life

Indexes like the Stock Market and Wholesale Price/Consumer Price are critical to a man's well-being. But why stop there? I have developed the following indexes (patents pending) for helping measuring your own well-being. No, it's Ok. You don't have to thank me.

Health Index: Inverse of the No. of antibiotics you popped in the last six months, plus inverse of the no. of doc visits in the last six months

Relationships Index: No. of ships of various kinds that you are into, minus those that you are out of

Relative-control Index: (No. of relatives in close proximity with micro-level hyper control syndrome) to the power of 'N', where N is the no. of such relatives

Happiness Index: Average No. of  likes on your last five facebook statuses and/or cover photos, added to the blog viewership of your last ten blog posts, minus no. of real meetings with your friends.

Unhappiness Index: No. of scheming mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, shouting news anchors, experts on TV debates, repairmen of any kind that you encountered in the last 24 hours, all added together. Add 20 points to this if you watched Himesh Reshamiya on the small screen.

Kejriwal Index- Closely related to the above. Number of times you watched Kejriwal's antics on TV. This is independently capable of causing Unhappiness or Mirth depending on how you look at it.

Pressures and Unhappiness

There is all kinds of pressure these days from your cradle to your grave. These grave thoughts are the result of some weekend ruminations. Whenever one hears cricket commentary, one remembers the words Manovaigyanik dabaav (Psychological pressure) used by erstwhile Hindi commentators.

These pressures can be of various kinds. To conform, to comply, To fall in line, to be what someone else wants you to be, to keep up with the Maniklals, etc.. What you do with them can result in happiness or otherwise- yours and that of others.

We frequently think that a faster (or bigger) car will bring us happiness, and do double duty to earn enough to buy it. But how many guys actually go out on a long trip in their car- big or small? Research may show that these are fewer than imagined. So the car ends up causing parking problems for everyone, if you are in a metro, rather than joy for the owner. The stares you get are less envious, and more about the nuisance caused by your giant ego-sized vehicle.

Anyway, setting aside cars for a moment, unhappiness can be caused by pressures to perform in fields that you did not choose, or did not apply your mind to choosing. Artists the world over have been represented as rebels, who did exactly what they wanted, and who were often carefree and poor monetarily. There may be a symbolism in this stereotype. It is not that being rich makes you a boor all the time, but it is the setting of your priorities that counts towards happiness over a long time.

Resisting the pressure to be yourself is possible only with some level of economic independence- at the very least, the capacity to feed yourself. Those who can, must try and do what they feel like, and not worry about the guy or gal next door who prepares for an IIT test or whatever else.

Gems of wisdom? Too late in the day? Could be.