Building A Happy Community Through Happy Streets

‘Happy Street’ explores a new economic paradigm, the economics of kindness and caring. It embraces in addition, social, environmental and governance quality. Sweeping changes are expected as the idea of a cleaner India has taken us by storm. Now what is needed is action, more action. This and other issues are handled in the Happy Street, just published by Penguin Japan was a winner in the World Cup, though they lost the first match they played. They caught the world’s attention, when all the Japanese fans and players cleaned up their part of the stadium after the match! They set a new gold standard for civility and educated cleanliness. Japanese teachers and students stay back half an hour after class to clean up the classroom and keep it ready for the next day. One of the airlines requests passengers to do the same to get the aircraft ready for the next flight. The idea of cleaning up should become the job description of every person in India. The feeling that ‘others’ will clean up after you is what creates all our hygiene problems. Gandhiji cleaned his own toilet. NRI’s clean their own toilets when they live abroad. But in India, since someone else is doing it, we are totally careless. Every toilet, every park, every vehicle should be cleaner when you leave it, than when you enter it. Let us start with our own homes and offices. Let us set an example by picking up pieces of paper or plastic strewn in front of our homes. Example is the most powerful motivator. Keep your own doorstep clean. For years in India, activists have used the pictures of Gods to prevent people using compound walls as street toilets. Let us involve religious leaders to get across the message that cleanliness is next to Godliness. Let us start with our religious places. Let religious leaders make people see cleaning up as seva. The Singapore Government achieved a clean Singapore by fining those who litter. The Japanese are doing it by making it a part of education and mindset. In India, let us use every possible method: psychological, social, economic and religious methods to make Swacch Bharat a reality! But cleanliness alone is not enough. We need an attitude transplant and positive happiness. Happiness is the key to the well being of countries and cities. It is the Gross National Happiness that Bhutan has measured for 30 years that speaks louder than the more familiar Gross National Product. Today, Los Angeles, Dubai, Seattle, Victoria, the state of Vermont and hundreds of local communities are measuring their levels of happiness. We can improve the well being of societies by increasing understanding and appreciation of the factors that lead to life satisfaction, resilience and sustainability. The Happy Street is the third in a series of books: The Happiness Quotient and Innovate Happily are the first two. The Happy Street is a grassroots endeavour to building happy communities street by street. Based on many years of study the happy street is a step by step guide to happier communities. Shangrila has been a mythical idea of a perfectly happy place. It has lived in the minds of thinkers as a kind of a Utopia: There is a place in the distant mountains which is always calm and peaceful, where the earth is laden with luscious fruit and wholesome grain, where people are vibrant, healthy and happy, where every edifice is artistic and beauty clothes every home in the loveliness of hand-made artifacts. Lush greenery carpets the land, dazzling your eyes with its colourful butterflies, exotic animals and birds. The air is fresh and the water is pure and the sound of holy mantras is carried on every gentle breeze. Here the whole community is a family and smiles bind the hearts of all. You too can live in Shangri-La . . . In every case, this dreamland imagined by writers is cut off from the real world protected from outside influences and the people there lead simple, natural, pastoral lives. The Garden of Eden, to which no one can return, is the earliest image. We lost our keys to Eden due to our loss of innocence, our knowledge of good and evil and the sin of disobedience. And there is Atlantis, the paradise which Plato describes, ‘which sank into the ocean in a single day and night of misfortune’. But we too can build a Shangrila on our own street. We don’t just have to dream about it. Once you begin to practice the principles of happiness and the innovative thinking tools in your own life, you can build a happy street. Your happiness will be infectious. Make many friends who can get together to laugh, work, read and share. Plant more trees, clean up the roads, start walking and playing together with your kids. Share knowledge, play, beauty and wisdom. Create your own village which is needed to raise a child in your little corner of Chennai or any other city. Everything will be bright and blooming. You can create your own Shangri-Las in the world. For Shangri-La is not a really a place. It is within everyone’s own heart. The dream city is only a reflection of our own peaceful, happy hearts. Realize that what the world needs today are small acts of kindness, gratitude and optimism, not some fantasy about returning to the lost Garden of Eden.