To A Truly Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! That’s perhaps the first greeting you would have for anyone you meet this month. But think about it: what is true happiness, for that person and you? Philosophers have grappled with that question since time immemorial as each one of us is ultimately in pursuit of ‘happiness’ but there are no clear answers yet. One of the reasons why it has been difficult to define happiness is that it could mean different things to different people (read differences of age, class, gender, race, nationality and more), or it could mean a combination of different things to different people. Among the most debated measures of happiness is money. There are people on both sides of the fence—those who dismiss it as any measure of true happiness and give precedence to the non-material aspects, and others who can’t stop highlighting its obvious benefits....