New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- The Wi-Fi password at the hotel was "happiness."

But of course. What else would it be in Bhutan, the country that gave us the idea of Gross National Happiness (GNH)?

I was invited to visit Bhutan earlier this month as part of the Bhutan Echoes, an annual literature and arts festival. Though Paro is barely an hour's flight from Kolkata, my exposure to Bhutan was limited to Druk marmalade and orange squash. Bhutan existed on the peripheries of my imagination as a mysterious Shangri-La where men wore skirts, and placid takin, a strange animal that looks like a hybrid between a sheep and a musk ox, roamed the slopes. And of course everything came with a side of Gross National Happiness which promised good governance an...