Jai ho KBC, with that one exuberant call Alolika Bhattacharjee Guha, a contestant on the Kaun Banega Crorepati TV show, won the hearts of millions of Indians starved of the elusive feel good factor. In her all-too- brief interaction with the show’s host, Amitabh Bachchan, she reminded us that not only is it simple to be happy, it's so simple to be simple.
Once the clip was out, the internet spilled over with goodwill and joy like cream bursting out of an éclair. Simply because, her unbridled joy seemed like the real thing amid the all-pervasive fakeness and world weariness that social media foments. The former primary school teacher from Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal brought into the open the reality of a middle class existence that is eclipsed by impossible Bollywood dreams.
Uncharacteristically, even hard-boiled cynics on twitter were swept away. by her cheerful stoicism, highlighting her acceptance of the age-old unquestioned philosophy, it is what it is. But Alolika’s simplicity is not simplistic. She has been offered a job as a supervisor in the Directorate of Integrated Child Development Services in West Bengal and despite her seemingly cavalier attitude walked away with Rs 12.5 lakh in earnings from the show. And also everyone’s heart. As she said later, she felt like a crorepati just knowing that Amitabh Bachchan had shared her video clip on twitter.
What broke the internet was her honesty that came from what we have long forgotten: the ability to be oneself combined with complete artlessness arising from the ability to accept one’s own jagged individuality. How easily she spoke of the travails of a train journey where one has to keep peeking under the seat to make sure one's luggage is not spirited away by thieves in the dark of the night. Or the wondrous revelations of her luxurious hotel stay and the first time joys of air travel. How happy she was at the opportunity that life gave her, ephemeral though it be.
If we were to look honestly at pure untutored responses, we would find beneath our dolor and anger the same ability to meet circumstances in our lives with an easy laugh and shrug.
In a heartwarming wave to hand wringers of the exaggerated mental health brigade, Alolika proved that feeling miserable for what you don't have is really a silly and sorry state to be in. We only fool ourselves into believing that a want is a need. Equally relevant is how she says she perks up her mood: merely by thinking of happy things. Not very complex but it is this profound, and straight from the heart advice that has endeared her to us with great identification from the lowbrow to the intellectual snobs. We know in our heart of hearts that we are such cowards in expressing how we feel because we want to belong to the pack.
The internet has actually been instrumental in fostering the lemming effect, nudging us to feel sorry for ourselves, setting the bar higher and higher inevitably for failing on the hedonic treadmill. Every grief or setback or disappointment is medicalised in a snap and therapies and therapists trotted out. As a cultural practice, a healthy one, egging people along to view setbacks as an essential part of life with trials and tribulations as par for the course has but fallen by the wayside. Gone is the ability to be happy for the occasional rainbow and rejoice in it is considered simple minded.
Her refreshing lack of inhibition in stating things as they are shows a complete absence of false shame that we saddle ourselves with. As she showed, external impositions are quite unnecessary if you bypass them with charm and a casual disregard for the norm.
Her blitheness is particularly like bright sunshine because as a nation we are now one of the unhappiest peoples in the world. This blithe soul might just push us up the benighted World Happiness Index from rank 126 out of 136 countries to Scandinavian top ten levels if we would only take a leaf out of her book.
Alolika’s infectious laughter and joyful banter prove that money can't buy you happiness. For that you just need an effervescent state of mind.
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