What defines Happiness ?

There is no path to happiness, Happiness is the path. "

                                           Gautam Buddha 

The world rejoiced and celebrated the World Happiness Day on 20th March. The United Arab Emirates held a full day meeting as a part of the World Government Summit. The United Nations launched the world happiness report 2017, Norway tops the list followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, etc. Now, these countries are highly ranked on factors like caring, freedom, generosity, health, income and good governance. 

However, the index of Happiness seems so puzzling to me as I still wonder as to what defines happiness ? Although India ranks low in this index as excepted. The United Nations values factors like the Human Development Index and Gross National Happiness while in India we probably take pride in our GDP, We are more than happy with few International recognitions like the "Best National Anthem" by the UNESCO. 

Woody Allen, an American actor, director once quoted  "To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love — to be happy then is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love to suffer.” the current political scenario in India when the Yogi's have redefined the yogasanas rather politically correct asanas. This  well describes India as the most Happily Unhappy Man or a drunkard sunk in joy of misery, reaching for another drink.

I believe happiness comes from satisfaction of needs. But India is full of diversity. The needs in India differs probably from district to district it's hard to universalise " happiness." In India, Happiness is personal, it is individualistic, it can be free offers at Diwali, or an unlimited talk time data, it can be no rush in public transport or it could be a public holiday after a weekend. In India Happiness can mean anything.