Thursday, January 8, 2009

New Year Thoughts

Catching up on Laksh's and Usha's posts on New Year, I thought I would share my thoughts here in a post.

Years ago, when I was in school, New year eve was an emotional moment. And what was part of the celebration of the moment? Doordarshan. Watching the New Year eve programs in TV was the most exciting thing happening. I remember as the clocks ticked, I relied of the host of the show to make the moment memorable for me. I remember getting disappointed on some shows not making the IMPACT when the clock struck 12. "Not as good as last year program!".

At that point in life, I really did not want anything more to be done on a NY eve. Even though, I watched the parties for new years in movies etc, I don't recall longing to be part of any such thing. But I always used to think about what I accomplished that year and what I wanted to be later.

Over time, the magic faded out and I was too busy this year to do even that introspection that Laksh mentions. Something reminded me that "hey, it is New year", but I was vacationing and have not till date thought about gains/losses in the past year.

Did I become more mature to realise that life goes on and NY eve is another day? I know that life will not change just because it is New Year, but I think it is an occasion to reflect on the past. However silly is, if that occasions prompts you to make a new beginning, what is wrong in that? If this becomes an excuse to make a change in myself, why not?

New year resolutions are made fun of - because they die soon. I know it may not last long, but when we were younger, we felt the hope of changing for good on NY day. As we grow older, we accept that nothing is going to change and become more mature. We close the doors to hope and change by growing up. I can literally feel that change in myself. I wish I could become silly, naive and immature and bring back the hope to change and become better - like old days!

7 comments:

Usha said...

In so far as they act as periodic milestones to sit down and sort ourselves out and to chalk out another short term plan for our immediate future, New year is a very good ritual. The trouble we get carried away and begin to imagine dramatic differences in our lives with every new year. If nothing, every new year still gives us another round of festivals to celebrate and a another set of holidays. So let us welcome it with open arms.

Anonymous said...

I am for celebrating New year and making resolution. I see it this way. we can clean the house anyday; but for Diwali we do special cleaning every year. 'anydays becomes 'no day'. same with new year; a time trigger. I should do a post soon on it.
good weekend girl.
shy

UL said...

I read this earlier and thought deep, went back to work and thought again...do I make resolutions? all the time. Do they all work out? Eventually ,yes. But in techincal terms(somehow easiest for me to explain in), it is an iterative life cycle. As Usha said, treat New Year as just a new round, a new iteration with a few more objectives to achieve. At the end, you might've accomplished some of it, sometimes most of it, we move the rest for next year and start all over again. As long as we have a target in mind and a plan to move toward it, we will do well. I couldn't move on life without any objectives...what a waste that would be!

anamika said...

@Usha - Welcome here! Yes, let us welcome with open arms!

@Shy - post soon!

@UL - Iterative cycle, that is a nice analogy!

Unknown said...

My thoughts are similar to Shy's. I think of new year as a time to indulge in cleaning the mental clutter... just because it will clutter again, doesn't mean we should not clean up.

anamika said...

@Suman - Agree with you!

B Shihab said...

wishes a good new year