I want to be happy too!

A little secret: I’ve always wanted to start a religion. With the number of god-men and -women that we seem to produce, it couldn’t be that difficult. Get some decent research done, retrofit some promises to the findings, bring in a few image consultants, maybe persuade some of my old advertising buddies to help out with some communications, get some conjuring lessons from the PC Sorcar family, and grow a beard (I already have the hair). Selling the promise of happiness, here on earth or ever after, seems to me to be far easier than this journalism thing. People want to believe. They’re begging for easy answers and it seems to be a shame not to make their earthly stay a little less stressful, while ensuring that my corporeal self has the comforts it would like to be accustomed to.

So, I’m shooting myself in my hand-woven sandals with this issue. Because in our cover package (pages 27–38): we give you a very practical how-to on being happy, grounded in hard science, by Dr Vikram Sheel Kumar; we tell you where you have the best chance of finding a happy life (our young, but very well-travelled, colleague Shravan Bhat collates research on the happiest places on earth); and we round it off with a list of recommended reading, by Charles Assisi and Sumana Mukherjee.

And yes, those Sorcars: on page 83, Shamik Bag takes a deep dive into the best known family in the Indian magic world. Dinesh Krishnan and Jasodhara Banerjee also had a chance to spend time with the Symphony Orchestra of India, watching how they put together a performance (p 106). And Shishir Prasad and Dinesh again (lucky so-and-so) also hung out with Ustad Zakir Hussain, pretty much Indian classical music’s global ambassador (p 39). And if all that’s too intense, Kishore Singh has curated a set of paintings that rest very easy on the eye, a brief walkthrough of the history of the nude in Indian art (p 61). Of course there are all our usual coumnists sharing thoughts and ideas in their fields of interest. And for those of you who start flipping pages from the back-of-the-book, you’ll start with a set of extremely well-dressed men from the Republic of Congo.

Until next issue, then, fare thee well, mortals.

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The above text is from my edit letter in the new ForbesLife India, which has just hit bookshops and all the better news-stands. Below, the Table of Contents pages, to whet your appetite. [Click on the thumbnails to see larger images.]

Contents 1

Of course there's more than the stories mentioned above. Like our columnists Meenakshi Shedde on unusual cinematic experiences, Jai Arjun Singh on the literature of the underprivilged, Deepanjana Pal on art as décor, Uday Benegal on the music of protest, Manjula Padmanabhan with her quirky 'inventions,' Anand Ramachandran on games India needs, and the intrepid traveller Ashwini Kakkar on what to see and do in Sydney. And Madhulika Liddle gives us her pick of the (film) songs that defined our decades, Sirish Chandran lists five drives that test driver and machine, and Manta Ray Comics has a thought-provoking graphic story, Nila. Plus our team members Sumana Mukherjee on breakfast, and Rohin Dharmakumar on why you should acquire a few programming skillz. As usual, a few picks from our US edition: a very interesting home set up for espionage, a luxury resort in grizzly bear land, a fashion spread featuring golf icons, and the personal collection of a vintage car auctioneer. And to round it all off, our usual Interesting Tools, Objets, and Toys.

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