Category Archives: Writing

International Day of Happiness

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The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – that’s all that matters ~ Audrey Hepburn

Be happy today because today is the International Day of Happiness!

Since 2013, the United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Happiness as a way to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. In 2015, the UN launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which seek to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet – three key aspects that lead to well-being and happiness.

The world is a rapidly changing place. Among the fastest changing aspects are those relating to how people communicate and interact with each other, whether in their schools and workplaces, their neighbourhoods, or in far-flung parts of the world. In last year’s report, we studied migration as one important source of global change, finding that each country’s life circumstances, including the social context and political institutions were such important sources of happiness that the international ranking of migrant happiness was almost identical to that of the native born. This evidence made a powerful case that the large international differences in life evaluations are driven by the differences in how people connect with each other and with their shared institutions and social norms.

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This day was originally conceptualised and founded in 2006 by Jayme Illien, then CEO of the United Nations New World Order project, to advance a new economic system, theory, and philosophy called “happytalism”, which achieves the UN’s global goals and the happiness, wellbeing, and freedom of all life on earth. This came from his belief that the happiness, wellbeing, and freedom of all life on earth is the ultimate purpose of every human being, nation, and society. Illien developed his vision for global happiness as humanity’s ultimate purpose, through a life spent on the frontlines saving orphaned and abandoned children fleeing war, genocide, and extreme poverty, and theorizing about solutions to the human condition, and the great challenges facing humankind, after he himself was abandoned as an orphan, and rescued from a roadside in India in 1980, by missionaries of Mother Teresa, who first named him Adam, and sent him to live in America.

Illien believed that an “International Day of Happiness”, established with, and recognized by, a new UN resolution, with the support of all 193 UN member countries, would provide the essential, unique, and broad-based, wide-ranging democratic support, international credibility, and worldwide legal legitimacy, for a new global day of happiness for humanity, which in turn, would enable future generations to eventually, objectively consider the concept of happytalism as a new economic system to solve to the great challenges facing humanity, thereby placing the fate and future of happytalism directly in the hands of the people and future generations. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly adopted UN resolution 66 281: International Day of Happiness with the unanimous consensus of all 193 Member States, and the support of then UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon, declaring March 20 as the international day of happiness. Illien chose 20 March for its significance as the March equinox, a universal phenomenon felt simultaneously by all of humankind.

On March 20, 2013, the first ever international day of happiness was celebrated with the launch of UNIDOHappiness, and the “Ten Steps to Global Happiness” campaign theme, which has since become an annual tradition.

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The 2020 International Day of Happiness campaign theme is ‘Happiness For All, Forever”. To celebrate, UNIDOHappiness, the UN secretariat for the International Day Of Happiness, is calling on all 7.8 billion people and all 206 nations and territories, to take the “Ten Steps to Global Happiness” challenge and call to action. The ten steps to global happiness are “ten easy steps any individual, organization, or country, can take on the international day of happiness, and throughout happiness week, to celebrate the international day of happiness, while also advancing the happiness, wellbeing, and freedom of all life on earth by 2050, when the United Nations forecasts global population to reach 10 billion”. The first step is “Tell Everyone”, which is designed “spread the word” to increase global awareness about the very existence of the international day of happiness, and the UN’s unanimous recognition of happiness as a human right, as well as happiness as an approach to sustainable economic and human development.

So what are the Ten steps to Global Happiness? The Ten Steps to Global Happiness are ten easy steps any individual, organization, or country can take to celebrate the International Day of Happiness while also advancing the happiness, well-being, and freedom of all life on Earth by 2050, when the United Nations forecasts global population to reach ten billion. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the first step is to tell everyone to be happy!

Tell Everyone – Tell as many people people as you can about this day which is just eight yeats old. Happiness is an undeniable right of every human being and everyone, regardless of race, language, religion or sexual orientation. So go out and spread the message.

Do What Makes you Happy – Don’t you think happiness is a fundamental human right? I do and so today I am going to do something that makes me happy. I am going to read and and also think happy and positive thoughts today. I plan to spend time with my children as well and have some one on one time with each of them. You too should do what makes you happy today (and not just today, but everyday). Spend time with family, friends and loved ones, engage in what excites you, exercise and get those endorphins alive. In short, be passionate of all that you do, at least today, if not daily!

Give and Spread Happiness to Others – Happiness is contagious. The secret to happiness is giving and spreading happiness to others. Step 3 is to give happiness and spread happiness to others: friends, co-workers, family, or even better, a random person who would never expect it. This is a simple and personal step and when completed by all of us, this step is integral to spreading happiness exponentially and globally.

Host or Celebrate a Happiness Month Event – Because of the World Happiness Day, March is now celebrated as Happiness Month. I think it’s apt because in the northern hemisphere, March is the advent of spring which bring happiness and hope after a dull and depressing winter. An entire month which is dedicated to happiness – as a human right, fundamental human goal, and as a way of life for all. Celebrate this month by hosting an event either within your family or friend circle or you can join an event at the happinessmonth.org website.

Share what makes you Happy – Share what makes you happy on, both offline and online. We all know that happiness is contagious, even if it is virtual. Sharing what makes you happy will inspire others to share their happiness too, and will appear in our happiness feed creating an exponential explosion of all happiness around the world!

Promote the UN Happiness Resolutions – This step is all about sharing the UN Happiness resolutions to spread the word about how 193 UN Member States adopted two UN resolutions recognizing and advancing happiness as a human right, and the need for a new economic system that places happiness at the center of sustainable economic development, and all life!

Read and Share the World Happiness Reports – The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors. As of March 2019, Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world twice in a row. The 2018 iteration was released on 20 March and focused on the relation between happiness and migration. According to the 2019 Happiness Report, Finland was the happiest country in the world, with Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Netherlands holding the next top positions. My country of birth, India stood at 140 and where I live now, Singapore stood at number 34. The United States was at number 19. To check where you country stood in 2019, click this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report and to read the World Happiness Reports from 2012, click here https://worldhappiness.report/. The 2020 report should be released sometime later today.

Advance the Global Goals for Sustainable Development – In 2012, the United Nations called for a New Economic Paradigm of Gross Global Happiness. Then, in 2015, the United Nations adopted the Global Goals for Sustainable Development: 17 goals and 169 targets for the world to achieve by 2030, on the path to have ten billion happy people by 2050.

Become a Global Partner and Ambassador – If you are a corporate or a website, you can become a global ambassador and partner by simply downloading and adding the UNIDOHappiness logo https://unidohappiness.org/ to your website. Or you can put the logo on anything like mugs, tee shirts, bags or just about anything to show your solidarity with the global movement to advance happiness as a human right and achieve happiness for all!

Advance and Adopt ‘Happytalism’ – There is a saying “save the best for last” and that is exactly what this last step is all about – the best thing you or anyone can do to celebrate the International Day of Happiness. How? Be happy, complete the Ten Steps to Global Happiness, and advance the happiness of all life on earth.

So what are you going to do to celebration Happiness Day and on a macro level, Happiness Month?

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Childhood Memories

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Childhood memories are the dreams that stay with you after you wake up

As I grow older, I start remembering old memories, so I thought I will start putting it down here just as a way to preserve these memories.

As I look back, my first memory is that of my grandmother. I have written about her before and she is someone who has really shaped me. I was the first born grandchild on both sides of the family (maternal and paternal) and was quite pampered until my sister came along a couple of years later.

I miust have been around 3-4 years old and one afternoon was with my mother who was buy vegetables from a vendor on the road outside our building. I now can’t remember why, but while she was busy haggling with the vendor, I quickly darted across the road. Those days not many people owned cars in India but somehow at that very exact time, a car drove on the road and I was probably knocked down. My mum was frantic and someone quickly went up to my home and got my grandmother. There was a doctor’s clinic just opposite our building and just where I was probably knocked down. I was quickly taken to the doctor who advised that the wound which was superficial and just below my left eyebrow be stitched up. My grandmother flatly refused saying what if something happened and my eye got hurt. Even today when my eyebrows are shaped, you can see the faint scar that remained from my accident when I was a toddler. Nothing really happened to me and I was ok within a day or two.

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Another memory I have is of my sister. She must have been around 2-3 years old and I was about 4-5 years old. She was and has been incredibly bold as a person. On a Sunday evening, my parents had taken us to Dadar for shopping. This was in Dadar which has this bridge which spans the train stations of the Western and Central railways and the corresponding Dadar stations and which connects what is called Dadar TT (called because a long time ago the trams used to terminate here and so TT stands for Tram Terminus. The trams have gone for a long long time, but even today that circle is called Dadar TT) and Dadar BB (I didn’t know why Dadar BB was called that until I did a Google search. It seems that since the western line which it lies on was part of the Bombay & Baroda & Central India (BB&CI) Railway, hence the BB. You learn something new every day).

This incident happened either on the bridge or just after we crossed the bridge to the western side. The road and market was quite crowded and my parents had a tight grip on us. But while walking, we suddenly realised that my sister was missing. My parents went crazy looking for her and starting looking frantically. After a while they saw a police chowky (a police box which is usually there in crowded locales so that the police from the local police station can do crowd control and keep an eye) and went to ask the policeman stationed there if he could help. He promised to check and told us to come back to him in a while. After searching unsuccessfully for another 10-15 minutes, we went back to the chowky to see my sister there waiting for us!

What happened was she suddenly found herself alone in the crowd and wanted to use her brain. She went to the nearest adult she could find and told him that her parents were lost and that if they could help her. She was lucky that the person who found her was a decent man and he took her to the police chowky and handed her over to the beat policeman who knowing my parents were looking for her decided to keep her while waiting for them to come back. My parents were so relieved to find her and found her ingenuity brave that she pretty much got away with slipping from my mother in the first place.

This story has now gone down in my family lore and my parents and grandparents (when they were alive) used to dish it out so many time! I am sure her children have also heard parts, if not this story in its entity. If not, I am going to tell them the next time I meet them.

International Women’s Day

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It’s March and this means it’s time for another International Women’s Day which will take place on Sunday. I have written previously about the IWD as it is usually shortened to and you can read more about the history of this day there.

Every day the global IWD committee has a theme and this year’s theme is “Each for Equal”. An equal world is an enabled world. We are all responsible every day for our own thoughts and action, but we can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements. Together and collectively every one of us can help create a world where gender is a non-issue and this world we live in is a gender equal world.

Equality is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue. For economies and communities to thrive, it is essential that those countries and communities practice gender equality. A world which is gender-blind is one which is healthier, wealthier and more harmonious, which makes for an ideal world, which is what we aim to reach for, right? The race is on for the gender equal boardroom, a gender equal government, gender equal media coverage, gender equal workplaces, gender equal sports coverage, more gender equality in health and wealth. So this International Women’s Day, let’s make it happen.

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So why is this day important and why are government, non-governmental and other organisations making such a big deal about it each year in March? Well, I believe that women should be celebrated every day but since that does not really happen, we take what we get. IWD is the one day in the year that recognises the value that women bring to the table, both individually and collectively and showcases the struggles they have undergone just to pave the way for the next generation.

In today’s world where many women (and men) have the power of social media in their hands (and phones), it is important that we use that power and influence in our hands and get involved and passionate about this cause of ensuring our next generations don’t have to go through the struggles we went through. So take that step and not just campaign and influence, but also celebrate, support, motivate, high-five and hug the females in your life this International Women’s Day.

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Happy International Women’s Day to all the lovely women (and the men who support and motivate their women) reading this post!

Poem: Life’s Choices

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Life throws choices at us all the time. We make choices almost every second of our day and sometimes these choices backfire on us. What is it about life’s choices that make it so hard to second guess?

Life’s Choices

You arrive at a converging path, wondering which road to take
Life gives you choices always, it has always been yours to make
Choose wisely and you will be blessed,
But if you make the wrong choice, you can make life a living hell

But that is the way life operates, choices abound at every stage
You have but to choose your path, on stage and off stage
It has always been your choice, you can be what you wish
Chained to tradition or free to choose, a winner to the finish

Sometimes you do need to take the road less travelled
It may be hard, you may be baffled
But when success kisses your feet
All those troubles seem trivial and your success that much sweet

So dream the most audacious dream you are able to
Then choose to make that a reality, you can do it, yes you
Today will pass soon, tomorrow awaits you eagerly
Rejoice and enjoy your choices, because that’s how the dice rolls!

International Mother Language Day

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If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart – Nelson Mandela

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21st February 1952, around 9 am, students began gathering in the premises of University of Dhaka in defiance of Section 144 which banned public gathering. This gathering was because the then Pakistan government led by Jinnah’s successor, Governer-General Khawaja Nazimuddin staunchly defended the ‘Urdu only’ policy during a speech on 27 January 1952. Then later that month, at a meeting, the central government’s proposal of writing the Bengali language in Arabic script was vehemently opposed and the meeting’s action committee called for an all out protest on 21 February, including strikes and rallies, to prevent which the government imposed section 144 in Dhaka.

Later that morning, as armed police surrounded the campus, students gathered at the university gate attempted to break the police line. In retaliation, the police fired fired tear gas shells towards the gate to warn the students. A section of students ran into the Dhaka Medical College while others rallied towards the university premises cordoned by the police. The vice-chancellor asked police to stop firing and ordered the students to leave the area. However, the police arrested several students for violating section 144 as they attempted to leave. Enraged by the arrests, the students met around the East Bengal Legislative Assembly and blocked the legislators’ way, asking them to present their insistence at the assembly. When a group of students sought to storm into the building, police opened fire and killed a number of students, including Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Sofiur Rahman Abul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar. As the news of the killings spread, disorder erupted across the city. Shops, offices and public transport were shut down and a general strike began.

Soon dissorder spread across the then East Pakistan as large processions ignored section 144 and condemned the actions of the police. During the continued protests, police actions led to the death of four more people.

Today, 21 February, which is a public holiday in Bangladesh is also called State Language Day or Language Martyrs’ Day which was also proclaimed by the United Nations in November 1999 as International Mother Tongue Language Day. In Bangladesh, on this day, people visit the Shaheed Minar, a solemn and symbolic structure erected at the location of the massacre in memory of the language movement which led to the country’s independence.

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Languages, especially what we refer to mother tongue languages, which are the ones we first learn to speak with our parents and family are one of the most powerful ways to preserve and develop culture and to promote it all across the world.

With their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, languages are of strategic importance for people and planet. Yet, due to globalization processes, they are increasingly under threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression — valuable resources for ensuring a better future — are also lost.

At least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.

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International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.

Every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.

Linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Globally 40 per cent of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. Nevertheless, progress is being made in mother tongue-based multilingual education with growing understanding of its importance, particularly in early schooling, and more commitment to its development in public life.

Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages which transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way.

Today there is growing awareness that languages play a vital role in development, in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, but also in strengthening co-operation and attaining quality education for all, in building inclusive knowledge societies and preserving cultural heritage, and in mobilizing political will for applying the benefits of science and technology to sustainable development.

The theme for the 2020 edition is “Languages without borders”. Today, make it a point to communicate in the language you were first exposed to, your Mother Tongue. And if it is a language or dialect that is in danger of becoming extinct, then all the more, you owe it to yourself and the future generations to preserve it.

Here’s an interesting Youtube video from a TEDx talk by Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald who speaks about the future of endangered languages. Do watch it!

And another TEDx talk by linguist Mandana Seyfeddinipur on why endangered languages matter.