***HAPPY NEW YEAR***

A fresh new year SMS has just arrived….’yet another new year, new hope, new direction, new dreams, new horizons, so on…’

By the way what is so new about the year 2012? And for that matter what was so new on 1^st January 2011, or 2010 or 1983 or 1971. At the moment the only new thing around is a calendar on my wall and few new columns in news paper. Even the SMSs and phone calls hitting my cell phone are almost the same like every year.

Creative human mind thought of breaking down an endless flow of time in tiny fractions, and a relatively bigger of these fractions, a set of 365 days became one year. It is a negligible part of time even if we consider just the life span of earth and millions of such years would appear to be an insignificant period if we consider the flow of time from the moment of big-bang…the point at which probably the time came into existence.

But for human specie, one year is rather an important period of time as individual generally gets just 70 to 80 of them. The collective impact of what this set of 365 days offers can be significant for an individual and at times historic for large part of population as a whole. The year 2011, in fact witnessed many historic and significant events, like- resurgence of mass movements for democracy and freedom and against bad governance, death of dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden, a promising breakthrough at CERN lab, Japanese tsunami and European debt crisis. Some of them made us happy; others resulted in gloom and despair.

Of course every year may not be as path-breaking or historic. However it is always a mixed baggage of sweet, sour and also bitter experiences of varied degree for all of us. As we move forward on 1^st January every year wishing Happy New Year to each other, next 365 days always offer something to cheer about, something to tear about and many things to just shrug off.

But still each 31^st December ends with a sense of eagerness for something new and each 1^st January brings a sense of fresh beginning. (of course if you had not drunk the prior night). Each New Year fills our mind with new hope and new dreams and new resolutions…though sooner than later hopes fade, dreams are forgotten and resolutions are broken…

Nevertheless this eagerness for something new, to be hopeful for something thrilling and cheering is I think truly represents the spirit of humanity. (I do not refer bottled spirits here). New challenges, new experiences, ambitious triumphs on circumstances around, possibilities of stretching the horizons have always attracted human mind. And I feel somewhere this attraction partially symbolizes itself, when we eagerly say Happy New Year. Because for the moment at least we assume that we will collectively and individually achieve all this in the year that has begun…..

So Happy New Year!!!