Happy new year 2024

 2023 paves way to year 2024 - a New Year we perpetually wish to be better than the previous one. The coming year is going to be unique, a leap year, with a date of February, 29 which comes once in every 4 years, enabling those born on this unique day the rare opportunity to celebrate their birthdays on the actual day. Also it is the year of the Olympics scheduled to be held in Paris in summer of 2024.

I am reminded of Morarjee Desai, who in year 1977 became India's Prime minister at the age of 84. When a reporter questioned him about his old age, the witty PM answered - "I am just 21", alluding to his date of birth. His birthday occured once every four years as he was a leap year child, born on February 29.

While stepping into the New Year of 2024, thousands of Nostadamus and Malika predictions from our ubiquitous Whatsapp University are circulating on social media. Yet we don't know for sure what lies ahead of us and what's in store for us next year in an age of unpredictability. No Nostadamus or Malika predicted Covid Pandemic 4 years ago as we stepped into 2020, something which came with cataclysmic events associated with it.

As the old man 2023 bends his spine to extend his hand to open the door to welcome the New Year, it is now time for some retrospection. The passing year 2023 will be forever be remembered for several reasons. The Coronavirus pandemic which was a scourge for past several years is now passe. Economic uncertainties and wars at hotspots of the world still continue. World Cup Cricket,  a once in 4 years sporting jamboree was held in India, a Sports considered as a religion in the host country and religiously followed. 

The game of Cricket is a great unifying factor in a nation of 1.4 billion. The English say "God save the Queen", the Americans say "God Bless America". I say 'God bless Cricket". Arguably our national passion, the game of Cricket, unites every Indian from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Bengal to Baroda. When India plays Cricket, we feels ourselves as an Indian rather than a Punjabi, Tamil, Marathi or Odia.

A la getting rid off old cloths for the new ones and the soul moving from one body to another as famously extolled by Lord SriKrishna in  BHAGWAT GITA, our Hindu Scriptue, year 2024 will be reborn yet again at midnight tonight as the soul of 2023 passes away. The year dawns with the cherubic smile of a newborn, as another number is added to its age in the form of New Year. But hardly anything else ever changes with the arrival of the New Year. For me the mundane life trudges ahead as the same shit, different day - with different color and texture. Hardly anything worthwhile difference occurs, the status quo is maintained more or less.

The antonym of "Happy New Year" is "Unhappy Old Year". Year 2023 was pretty close to that for me due to various reasons. I lost a few close friends and relatives who passed away to a different realm. This year came and went with a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly, with additional baggage of  memories gently rolling into next year. Made new friends, revived old ones and lost a few near and dear ones once and for all. I may sound nihilist, yet the year comes with this stark reminder to me - life goes downhill from here, tasks become uphill and years are numbered before we go over the hill. 

I do not make any New Year's resolution. As usual I don't and can't keep them. Resolutions like promises are made to be broken. I simply roll over to the year ahead of me. We may forget history but we repeat it year after year, similar to this starting stanza of Kishore Kumar's song :

EK RUUT AYE, EK RUUT JAYE PHIR,
MOUSAM BADLENA, BADLE NASEEB.

"One season comes and another goes,
Seasons don't change, fate does". 

To me, almost all New Year wishes expressed over the years have been too pleasant to be forgettable. The Homo Sapien species has this inherent instinct to remember the unpleasant ones and I am no exception. I remember this one from 1st January, 1982. On the first New Year after his marriage to princess Diana, when the nosey British Paparazzi got a scent that her marriage with Prince Charles wasn't going too well, he wished them - "Have a Nasty New Year".

But I don't have to be nasty and negative. 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.