There's a genre of complaining that's popular online, that talks about how everything sucks in India. There's a whole lot of you out there. I'll only punch up and say this article by Manu Joseph is the kind that I'm speaking of.I am sympathetic to these views. It's worse for those with less economic and social privileges, and definitely downright unlivable for some.However, I am only addressing the privileged Manu Joseph class of people, who have money and cushy well-paid jobs (often in tech), and who might be curious about why I don't get (persistently) annoyed at all the honking, garbage, wrong side riders, and our supposedly filthy, uncivilised society.My underlying principle simple. Accept that you have the life you have. Make tradeoffs. The counterfactual life you are supposedly missing out on isn't real, and complaining about not having it is thus absurd. Everything is easier with this mindset, even in "hard-mode" India. All my solutions to being generally happy and not bitter in India comes down to me making tradeoffs. I find a lot of satisfaction in solving problems under constraints, and India can be a great playground for that.Honking, traffic, pollutionFor honking, I solved it for the most part by buying earplugs. I have these which come with a nice tiny pouch you can add to your keychain. I use these when walking around loud traffic areas.For traffic, I solved it by living close to work (and "leisure") and living near a place with some metro connectivity and public transport. I don't drive. Where connectivity is sparse, autos suffice.For pollution, my area happens to be relatively low AQI, but perhaps still not fantastic over the long term. For now, I have accepted this tradeoff, but I know that I have some options in the future like investing in masks and air filters.Small annoyancesIn India, you are subject to many small annoyances, like honking, pollution, uncivility, or being subject to Manu Joseph's substack. Just two days ago, I had to cross a flooded road because it rained earlier. I waded through the water. When I got home. I put my socks in the washing machine. And washed my feet. And I moved on and didn't think about it, except for now, in order to supply an example here (so perhaps this "annoyance" was a net positive?). I didn't have to internalise or tie it into a larger narrative of how my life is miserable for having to deal with these annoyances day in, day out.I sometimes feel I get judged for talking like this, as though I'm endorsing that we not fix issues at the root, or we "just deal with it" instead of wanting change. This is not what I am saying. What I'm saying is that I'd rather be happy, and thus effective as a person, and this is more in our hands than most people assume. I strongly believe that one has to climb their own "Maslow" ladder so that they can start improving and looking out for others.