The antonym of "Happy New Year" would be "Unhappy Old Year". 2020 was exactly that - an old year now which made us all unhappy. Now the first post teen year of 2020 paves way for the year 2021 - a new year we wish it will make 2020 a forgettable one. While wishing so we step into it, we don't know what lies ahead, what's in store for us. As the old man 2020 bends his spine and extends his hand to open the door to welcome the New Year, it is now time for some introspection.
The passing year 2020 will be forever be remembered for two several reasons - Coronavirus pandemic which killed millions, caused economic recession and impacted the US Presidential elections. For the first time since 1944, a Olympics wasn't held on the schedule year. And for the first time since 1992 an incumbent President lost his reelection.
A la getting rid off old cloths for the new ones, the soul moving from one body to another as famously extolled by Lord Sri Krishna in the BHAGWAT GITA and other Hindu Scriptues, 2020 will be reborn yet again at midnight tonight as 2021. The year dawns with the cherubic smile of a newborn, as another number is added to its age in the form of a New Year.
But hardly anything else ever changes for me with the arrival of a new year. For me life trudges ahead as the same shit, different day - with different color and texture. Hardly anything cataclysmically different happens, rather more or less the status quo is maintained. I don't make any New year promises to myself, as I don't and can't keep them anyway. I just roll over to the year ahead of me.
But hardly anything else ever changes for me with the arrival of a new year. For me life trudges ahead as the same shit, different day - with different color and texture. Hardly anything cataclysmically different happens, rather more or less the status quo is maintained. I don't make any New year promises to myself, as I don't and can't keep them anyway. I just roll over to the year ahead of me.
We may forget history but we don't forget to repeat it year after year. Similar to this starting stanza of the Kishore Kumar's song :
EK RUT AAE, EK RUT JAAE PHIR,
MOUSAM BADLENA, BADLE NASEEB.
"One season comes and another goes,
Seasons change, not the fateful woes".
This year came and went with a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly for me, with additional baggage of memories rolling into next year. Made new friends, revived old ones and lost a few near and dear ones, once and for all. Yet the year comes with this stark reminder - life goes downhill from here, tasks become uphill and years are numbered before I go over the hill.
To me, almost all the New Year wishes expressed over the years have been pleasant enough to makes them forgettable. Homo Sapien's inherent instinct is to remember the unpleasant ones. I being no exception - remember this one from 1st January, 1982. On the first New Year after his marriage to Diana, Prince Charles wished the nosey British Paparazzi, "Have a Nasty New Year".
But I don't have to be nasty. So let me repeat the forgettable wish, as I do not forget to do at the end of every year - HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR ahead and stay blessed.
EK RUT AAE, EK RUT JAAE PHIR,
MOUSAM BADLENA, BADLE NASEEB.
"One season comes and another goes,
Seasons change, not the fateful woes".
This year came and went with a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly for me, with additional baggage of memories rolling into next year. Made new friends, revived old ones and lost a few near and dear ones, once and for all. Yet the year comes with this stark reminder - life goes downhill from here, tasks become uphill and years are numbered before I go over the hill.
To me, almost all the New Year wishes expressed over the years have been pleasant enough to makes them forgettable. Homo Sapien's inherent instinct is to remember the unpleasant ones. I being no exception - remember this one from 1st January, 1982. On the first New Year after his marriage to Diana, Prince Charles wished the nosey British Paparazzi, "Have a Nasty New Year".
But I don't have to be nasty. So let me repeat the forgettable wish, as I do not forget to do at the end of every year - HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR ahead and stay blessed.
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