Understanding Happiness

This book provides a comprehensive and enriching understanding of the construct of happiness from diverse perspectives. It provides readers with an overview of the issues, problems, and challenges related to well-being and happiness. The book is divided into three sections. It brings together researchers and practitioners from various disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and development studies. Each section includes chapters from leading academicians from across the world. The first section helps the reader understand happiness from a neuroscientific perspective and explores the relationship between happiness and subjective well-being. The second section of the book discusses the importance of building personal resources for happiness from a positive psychology point of view. The last section examines the importance of happiness in the workplace and suggests a sustainable development plan for happiness. It is a must-buy book for individuals nurturing critical thought and searching for a quintessential understanding of happiness. It presents a unique contribution to the literature with its multidisciplinary focus on specific topics.

Saamdu Chetri, a pilgrim of love and compassion, was born in a cowshed in remote Bhutan. After working for 25 years in the private and development sectors and five years in the first democratically elected Prime Minister’s Office as Head of Good Governance, he instituted the GNH Centre as one of its founding members and headed it for five years. In his 35 years of life’s working journey, he has been teaching, consulting, and speaking at various international and national occasions on various topics, including in the House of Commons in the British Parliament, Senators of Philippines, among others, and dozens of universities and colleges in the world including India. He has many interviews with all kinds of media and wrote three books with several contributions to many books. Since December 2017, he is engaged as Visiting Faculty (Professor) at the Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, IIT Kharagpur, India, and his mindfulness journey continues. He is a recipient of Lord Buddha Peace 2016 from Samata Sahitya Academy, and he is reflected in the 100 Prominent People of Modern Bhutan, 2008, in the book by Dr. C.T. Dorji. He is dearly referred to by BBC as a Happiness Guru.
Tanusree Dutta has been working as Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi. Prior to this, she has been working in other prestigious Institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Rajasthan, Banaras Hindu University, etc. Dr. Dutta had obtained her postgraduate and doctorate degrees from Banaras Hindu University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2000 and 2004, respectively. She has research publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals, which have been cited in manuscripts and books of national and international repute. She also has her credit to an edited book entitled ‘Bias in Human Behaviour’ and a book on ‘Neuromarketing in India: Understanding the IndianConsumer’. Apart from academics, she has also been actively involved in conducting various training programs and consultancy assignments for different companies.
Manas Kumar Mandal is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He is also Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc, Bangalore. He was formerly Distinguished Scientist and Director-General of Life sciences in DRDO, India. He holds a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Calcutta University, India; completed his postdoctoral research as Fulbright Fellow, USA, and NSERC Fellow, Canada. As Visiting Faculty, Dr. Mandal completed his tenure at Harvard University, USA; Kyushu University, Japan; and Aachen University, Germany. Dr. Mandal specializes in the areas of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Sciences. He has his credit to 14 books and over 100 research papers in international and Indian journals of high repute. This research is citedin more than 300 international journals and books with over 5000 citations.
Priyadarshi Patnaik is a Professor at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, and Chairman of Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, IIT Kharagpur. He is also Secretary of Nehru Museum of Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur, and Rector’s Nominee of Technology Students Gymkhana, IIT Kharagpur. His areas of research include Relationship and Well-Being, Visual Communication, Music and Emotion, Communication and Culture, Media Communication, Translation, and Digital Humanities. He has authored and edited more than 14 volumes of text, reference, and creative work. He has a number of research papers, translations, poems, short stories, illustrations, and photographs in many national and international journals.