Some good news amid the extensive coverage of myriad human woes, cataclysms and wars: most people around the world are feeling happy! What lends this survey authenticity is its sample size: over 18,000 people in 24 nations. And it’s even more positive in this country: the survey ranks Indians alongside Indonesians, who too are used to living in cramped city spaces thanks to the population density, and Mexicans as the happiest on the planet.

With tragedies like the double whammy of an earthquake and a tsunami striking Japan last year, and a whole swath of West Asia and North Africa on the boil in the “Arab Spring”, cynics may be forgiven for believing that the world is closer to extinction than a state of bliss in this kaliyug. The “happiness” bulletin was therefore a very pleasant surprise, since people appeared to be the happiest in nations that were still developing. Is there truth then in the old adage — that “money can’t buy happiness”?

What the survey seems to hint, but doesn’t quite say, is that the first world concept of a suburban utopia and a safe commute in a life of nuclear families is a myth. Human relationships may be complex, but it’s in togetherness that man, a social animal, finds the most happiness.