I do not like to watch television too much. My mom at 70 does not watch too much tv. Nor does my Dad. My daughter watches cartoon (I will hate the day she watches Saas…instead of Tom and Jerry!).

However yesterday I watched some television and decided to catch some ads too. The news channel was depressing to say the least and then the ads. If I believed the ads, I HAD to be miserable. I wonder how can anybody be happy at all?

One product selling channel was selling belts, sauna beds(?),…which meant if I lost 2 inches off some part of my body, my self esteem would go up. I frankly do not know how I am allowed to blame some insignificant part of my body for my self esteem!

One channel was telling me how if I switched from income funds to arbitrage funds, it would be great. Till I went to a website which said arbitrage funds have underperformed income funds in the past quarter, so I should stay away from these funds. One channel was analysing FMP performance – which to me is like a post mortem.

There was one channel which said that if a hung a ‘rudraksha’ around my neck all my worries would be over – my 8 year old daughter wanted one IMMEDIATELY! I have no heart that such solutions are actually not available.

She asked me one question…how come the things we use are not advertised? I had to think hard. In our house we have none of the happiness material – Kurkure, Thumbs Up, Coke, Pepsi, Kellogs, Appy, ….

I asked her ‘how to be happy’ – she looked at me quizzically and said, lets play chess….!

So I guess we all find our way to be happy without watching the ads on TV!