The New Year!

The mandatory new year post is here! This year deserves it.

Raise a glass as we toast to the end of a weird year and for having made it to another year which holds something unknown to us.

2020 has been insanely crazy and peculiar, beyond measures. Gloomy autumn, rainy monsoon, charmless occasions, trendless fashion, selfless debates, countless deaths, terrible suicides, goalless days, forest fires, flash floods and what not to drain us, collectively. We all had our share of wrath on the platter, undeniably. The year turned out to be that way primely because of the fact that none of us had been forced under such a situational circumstance, ever. Simply put, lack of experience.

We’re all definitely ready to adapt to another pandemic. We know the drill – work from home, online classes, home food all day, masks, hand sanitizers – the new perfume, mood swings of pets ranging from extremely happy to overly annoyed by their humans, recess-free lives for mothers – no, no I didn’t mean cooking or household chores (c’mon that’s easy opposed to handling our non-sensical shit); no more excitement for playing video games or for ‘Netflix & chill’ sessions, well we’ve been doing it the whole year and #ootd is all about pajamas.

Somehow, we all made it to history by surviving 2020. Of course we didn’t want to be a part of history for this…

Anyway, enough of me drifting to the past (or maybe the future?).

A new year! What’s so new about a new year? No, no, let’s talk about this right away, no more putting it off.

Well, technically a new year is all about the Earth completing one whole revolution around the sun. And continue on the same path, all over again, for another year. Nothing seems new here – neither the speed nor the path; exception – the obstacles (I meant the asteroids, meteorites, etc., chill). I don’t find this exceptionally new, to call for a celebration. Moreover, January 1st is the start of a new year, only according to Gregorian calendar.

Alright, forget it. Let’s get back to humans. How can we talk about new year without taking the topic of ‘resolutions’, right?

This word ‘resolution’ is excessively tagged with New Year Eve that we crossed the threshold of making it seem overrated to making it extremely underrated. Nobody knows if it’s still trending or not, anymore.

Resolutions are mostly broken. I’m not saying it; the stats do. We’ll talk about the ones, who are strong willed to achieve their resolutions, sworn on this day. Trust me, being strong willed is incredibly impressive but resolutions come out of inspiration from a book, a person or through an incident for seeking the betterment of self; and, not jumping out of thin air on New Year’s Eve.

However, if you really wanted buffer time to enjoy your favorite trait of procrastination before resolving to get rid of procrastination, sure, I don’t have a problem. Your life, your choice.

Materialistically and physically, there is nothing remarkably new on this day – same old humans, same lifestyle, same set of troubles to face and problems to deal with and our usual routines, as of yesterday.

Then what’s certainly new? I know I sounded a little cynical, pessimistic even, with the above lines but these are more than real; and, we all know it.

But, but, …

A new year is amazing in it’s own refreshing way. At least this time, yes. Considering how 2020 threw surprises at us, awfully terrible ones and the fact that we survived all of it, definitely calls for a party. As Darwin famously quoted “Survival of the fittest”, we survived, we deserved the survival as a reward for all the hardships we had to endure and we deserve a celebration for that, at the least.

Frankly, we all have a tinge of hope remaining in our hearts, expecting this year to treat us better. New year is all about new beginnings – new mindset – a better and welcoming one – welcoming new changes, new constants and a new us.

So let’s not take resolutions forcefully on this day, which we’re going to break, eventually. It’s the other way round. The day we take a genuine resolution is a new beginning in our life, a new tide, a new year.

Repeating Tamil poet Avvayar’s popular quote,

“கற்றது கைமண் அளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு”

which literally translates to the quantity of our knowledge being equivalent to a handful of sand while that we’re yet to learn is as much as the whole world.

So, everyday is a new start if we’re learning and there’s always more to learn.

Cherish everyday and everyday is the start of a new year. New Year is all about the mindset and not about Jan 1st. Cheers to a year full of new beginnings and new years.

Fun fact: Speaking of new year traditions across the globe, the Estonians follow the practice of eating 7, 9 or 12 meals on the eve of New Year. They believe it gives them the strength for the year ahead. Sounds unequivocally better than staying awake until the count down or boozing or finalizing resolutions.

– Harini ♥️

Note: Hey all! Happy New Year 2021.

It’s been a little more than a year since I last updated my blog. Reader’s and writer’s blocks took a toll on me and reader’s block was easy to tackle. The real devil was the writer’s block and I don’t seem to have recovered from it, completely.

However, thank you for reading down until here. Tried my best to write a good blog post here and still trying. Will always be a rookie in writing. Appreciate your support and love.

Suggest some ideas or topics on what I should write about (short stories or series or articles on life or book reviews, etc.), in case you want me to, in the comments.