An Eight Year Old Bespectacled Guy and Gross National Happiness

This is a repost, a little revamp done though. 

I have this cute little brother-my first cousin who wears glasses at the early age of eight and is in elementary school. He used to come home after school with his class work half done every time. We wondered at this stupidity of his and he was showered with bullets of scolds every time from his mom-my aunt. We never understood this predicament of his until he complained of sore eyes. He was taken to the ophthalmologist and later found that he needed glasses much to our amazement!

He looks so cute with his glasses on. He looks not through it but literarily from above it. This is the fourth pair of glasses in a year and a half’s time. Tired of getting him a new pair of glasses every time he breaks it, the kind ophthalmologist gave him a huge pair of glasses this time, absolutely for free. This one has lasted for quite a while now and my aunt is happy. Friends at school call him Amitabh Bachhan for his large glasses. My friend calls him Donald Duck and lately I see him the replica of Donald Duck: D. 

The last time I saw him was on a stool sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed though with his glasses on and was in a meditation posture as if in deep contemplation. It was stark indigestible. I asked him what he was doing. He answered that he is meditating as taught in school.

What does this eight year old know about meditation? Probably he was taught at school, part of the Royal Government of Bhutan’s policy of inculcating GNH in Bhutan. While I become a GNH graduate, this brother of mine sure is a GNH child.:P. I feel more like being back to Hitler's Germany (I haven’t been there, but I feel like that). Nazism was inculcated in school’s text books and compulsorily made as the state religion.
GNH in Bhutan has also become more or less of that sort.

GNH is the sexiest concept now, its sustainability a big question though. Starting from my assignments, presentations, research works and now this article, my life is revolved around this infamous concept. I did the most daring thing (like blood donation) which I never thought I would do one day in the name of GNH. Every where I turn it is this concept that brags me constantly

Image via Google

Every day, media reports the rampant rise of thefts, suicides, rape, burglaries, frauds, bans after bans...and the recent one, you would be jailed in Bhutan if caught smoking without a license. Interestingly, a caricature in a local newspaper showed that if you befriend an alcoholic you remain as who you are, but if you befriend a smoker than you become a criminal’s friend because smoking in Bhutan is a crime!  And of all the people, a monk was caught in possession of tobacco, hilarious!! and everyone knows what happened to that poor monk. sigh!

The mere mention of this concept makes me nauseous yet I have no alternative. It is the grace for my meals. Will my cousin become a GNH child? How well are we armed with GNH before we preach this so called concept and make it a reality? Is it a bait to attract donors since Bhutan is largely a donor-dependent country?  Or is it a Utopian concept?

Note : The thoughts expressed here are of the writers's solely and is not intented to harm anyone.