Many societies believe that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human right. But it is also true that attainment of happiness remains elusive. Perhaps Bertrand Russell had it right when he said, "To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." What gives us more pleasure and satisfaction: the pursuit of our desires or the attainment of them?

Daughter: Dad, I want the new iPhone 5.
Father: Not until your scores are good.
Daughter: Dad, please! You're being such a hypocrite! So many of my classmates have better and none of  their "scores" deserve it.
Father: Better scores or no iPhone. Now, go and study and don't waste time dreaming of such silly things.
Daughter: Yes, boss!

So, her pursuit of happiness began -- or rather what she thought would bring her happiness. Two months of hard work, fueled by enthusiasm and dream of the iPhone, brought great scores in the annual examination.
Father: Tomorrow, I will place an order for your iPhone.
Daughter: Okay. Or we can go for something better? I saw a pair of stillettoes at the mall the other day. I was wondering if........

How was she now not interested in the iPhone 5 anymore? Well, her friends had it already. But they didn't have the stillettoes.

Pursuit of our desires can take us to places hitherto unexplored. It can make us do things that we never imagined for ourselves in a lifetime. But the fulfillment or near-fulfillment of one dream most often leads to the germination of another. The concept of 'happiness', however, is not as simple as getting something and then wanting another and so on.

Dopamine is one of the main culprits. It identifies itself as a monoamine neurotransmitter in the brain that controls the feelings of reward and punishment. There are other hormones with situational specializations, but this guy called 'dopamine' is their chief.

Human psychology also has a role to play in this complexity. Myriad theories of the psychology of happiness have been put up by psychologists who differ vastly in their opinions. Unentwining the mystery of happiness is yet a pursuit -- quite a perplexing one. In fact, happiness has been labeled as "the most un-understood phenomenon in the world!" because everybody hopes to achieve it, but no one knows anything about it. A contrast to this, renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believes that humanity is doomed to chronic unhappiness.

The least one can do, though, is think of happiness on the basis of experiences from the more concrete world of affairs. For instance, to some people happiness is intoxicating. A man I met at the airport, by way of conversation, said, "Why go for all the trouble with meditation and self control to attain nirvana when a few pegs of whiskey does the deal?" Interestingly, even some insects are intoxicated by their desires. The mosquito, for example, sucks and sucks and keeps sucking blood until it grows too fat and heavy to stay on the skin anymore and then falls prey to eager claps. Similar is the case with a leech or with those tiny insects which blindly love light, especially flames.

To some others, happiness implies money and material possessions. These very people are the ones that get labelled greedy, stingy, selfish, self-centered, evil and the like. They are jealous of their neighbours' belongings, of  anyone with the potential to achieve anything beyond what they are capable of and of anyone trying to assist them in any field in any way. They are afraid of the fundamental characteristic of social existence -- give and take. To them, neither the pursuit nor the fulfillment of their desires is pleasurable. Among those who get wiser, it is unanimously accepted that the simpler, the better. In Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', Ebenezer Scrooge realises that no amount of money can buy the happiness that an open heart can give, after visiting the Crachits' with the 'Ghost of Christmas Present'.

Speaking of an open heart, there are people who hold the belief that the happiness of others is their happiness reflected. They live for others. It is utter misery to them to see those around them unhappy by even the most trivial of causes.

The upshot of all this jabber would be the same old incomprehensibility of the psychology of happiness. Asked what I find more pleasurable, the pursuit or the attainment of happiness, I would definitely say, the pursuit. It awakens a sudden zeal. It gives the footing to skip ahead on. As far as I know, I am happy so long as I think I am happy and only I have the authority to make myself feel otherwise -- not even that dopamine!