All aboard the 'Happy' train: the 'happiness' mania!

Happiness.

Kushi.

Santosanga.

Words like these are printed across every billboard, shouted in every TV comercial and figure in the name of every sale. It's official: happiness is a fad. A fad which turns the otherwise sane into sociopaths with one goal in mind: I want to be happy (and I want the whole world to know that I am).

"I don't know," says Ila, a student from Bangalore. "It just seems like a sales technique which is so direct and ingenuine that it's a wonder how people fall for it so easily."

Of course, ads do sell you the emotions associated with the product more than they do the product itself. Be it the relief associated with mosquito repellents or the thrill associated with a fast vehicle -- ads survive on emotions.

But when it comes to happiness, sales techniques don't tap into the human need to "pursue" happiness as much as they do the human need to "flaunt" it.

That brings us to the second part of the sales technique, which comes long after you've driven past the billboard, switched off the TV, and glanced at a flyer for a sale. This second part is what is called "unpaid" advertisement, because it's what you're going to do without realizing.

You, too, end up selling the idea of "happiness" as much as commercials do. How? Almost everytime you upload a picture on Instagram, tweet through your Twitter, or announce your location on Facebook -- you're communicating one message: I AM HAPPY!

Because now, "happiness" is a universal cult, and to stay a member, you have to be "happy" and you have to prove it.

Step one, you have to buy clothes from the Big Fat Happiness Sale down the road and experience the "joy" of having an expensive car. You have to feel the pleasure of a certain smart phone and the delight of a certain brand of chips (If you had to give the sales techniques credit for something, it would be the number of synonyms they can come up for the word "happy").

Step two is where social media comes in. "I upload a lot of selfies of myself, especially when I'm happy. After shopping, after going out with my friends, after watching a film -- it's like I just want the world to know I'm happy," says Sai Praneet, a resident of Hyderabad.

"Happiness" is an idea that is sold so much, it is the main idea behind viral videos which are being produced all across the world: people singing and dancing to Pharrel William's song, "Happy".

"It's scary how well that song did when the idea behind it was so simple. It's like this constant need for proving to yourself and the rest of your world that you're happy -- and you have to do it whatever you takes," says Diksha, a resident of Pune. And indeed, Williams' "Happy" is proof of the extent to which humankind will go to prove that they're happy (making a 24 hours long music video).

But putting the vougue that happiness has turned into aside, it is one of the basic positive emotions we chase throughout our lives. The happiness with a hashtag in front of it is very different from the one without, but the line has become very thin because of modern campaigning and social networking.

Of course, if Will and Jaden Smith have taught us anything, it's that you have to pursue happiness. But the questions remains, for whom? Your social media followers, friends, or yourself?