New Year

[Guest guest]

New year means new desires and new hopes. And, everybody

fervently expects the fulfillment of their wishes. We wish this to happen to our

family and friends too. It is also the time to make 

promises, mostly dubious,  which are rarely kept. See how gleefully people say

promises are 

meant to be broken. Some use the term ' New Year resolution' to inject more

determination into their promises. However, they invariably prove themselves to

be less resolute than they had  so boastfully proclaimed to be.

This paradoxical desire to change and yet remain the same afflicts me also.

After all, I am not very different from others.

Despite the frenzy associated with the New Year, I am unable to keep my cynicism

under check. What will be new in the New Year? The sun will still rise in the

east. I will have the same neighbour. I will go to office at the same time and

do the same work. I will read the same newspaper with the same unpleasant

stories. There will be the same scandals. The justice system will be the same,

taking painfully long time to decide on anything. We will have the same

mummified man in control. (However, it is widely believed that he was never in

control.) So what is new? As for myself, I would be happy with a new perspective

on something in life. I would like to see something new in myself and in others.

Also, I would definitely like Dr Shah to write new stories and Dr Oberoi new

poems.

The New Year celebrations are already being planned at our place. But the whole

event is very much predictable. Still, an evening full of fun is assured.  I

vividly remember one New Year party. It was a small gathering. We were at a

restaurant. It was a party like any other New Year party. Ladies were busy with

their customary tidbit. Children had their own private party going on

boisterously. Men are men: They were drinking steadily and exchanging

their experiences. The banter built up progressively. The talented few

entertained us with songs. At the stroke of midnight, we ushered in the New Year

with a toast. Our ardour cooled after some time. Ultimately, everybody had to go

home.  

We stepped out of the restaurant to be engulfed by thick fog. It was bitterly

cold--cold enough to make the ladies and children complain about

the treacherous weather. Then I encountered a disconcerting sight. At a distance

outside, a woman was standing desolately. She was grossly inadequately dressed

for the weather. She was carrying a child who looked malnourished. The child

desperately clung to the mother for warmth. She was enduring the cold (and

certainly endangering the child) in the hope that she would be able to get

something extra form the revelers. I realised why beggars cannot be choosers.

The beggar's image remained embedded in my mind. I thought for a long time what

the New Year meant to her. Would it change anything for her and her child? Her

sorrowful appearance and the helplessness in her eyes has haunted me ever

since. 

                 MERRY CHRISTMAS

                              &

                  HAPPY NEW YEAR

                             I wish for some happiness for that unknown

destitute also.

Bharat