Hooooof … phooooffff…
It is huffing….and puffing… panting and gasping for air…
Yes, 2021 is under heavy pressure…
Actually, every New Year is. A date changes on the man-made calendar and a heavy heavy load of expectations falls on the just-born year…
At least, for 48 hours before and 48 hours after a new year dawns, the pressure of expectations is humongous. Millions of messages hoping for happiness, and peace and health are forwarded and tossed around from one cell-screen on to another… (in addition to the private petitions and public prayer meetings loaded on the poor year). This year, particularly, will bear a heavier brunt and carry a heavier load, for obvious reasons. Everyone agrees that we learnt precious lessons in 2020, but no one wants a repeat telecast. Lessons aside, we want life to revert to pre-2020 times, and the onus will be on this year to make it happen for us!
The other day, an anchor on Vividh Bharati (All India Radio) said so very aptly that when every moment is a new one, why don’t we celebrate all the new moments, and when every fresh dawn is a new one, why don’t we celebrate every Happy New Day or for that matter, every Happy New Month? Why is everyone’s heart filled with hope, joy and exuberance only at the onset of a New Year? Guess, amongst other reasons, commercial reasons must be the real strong ones…
The first 48 hours have passed of the New Year. All the prayers and wishes have been sent and done with. Despite the colorful visuals and lofty words in the messages that kept circulating, our skepticism hasn’t dimmed. A little afraid we all are. The reality does not change overnight, as the calendar changes. We are still afraid of what next? We are afraid of losing jobs, losing loved ones, losing health and well-being and facing pay-cuts. There are other struggles and fears too.
While every year and every life, at all times is always a mixed package, our concerns are a little more and struggles, a little heavier this year.
Well, what exactly is in our control then?
Shall we just wait and watch what is in the offing?
Yes, wait we must and accept what life offers to us as it unfolds bit by bit… But, shall we modify the watching part a little? Let us not watch through a keyhole this time; let us not see just a part of the big picture! Let us not see just how much we make or how much can we gain or acquire and possess; let us not, through a keyhole—look intently only at our worries. Our planet may be a tiny blue dot, but we are even more smaller and insignificant and hence, this world is relatively too big for us. There is a lot to see and admire. One lifetime will not be enough and certainly not so if we keep watching through a keyhole.
What say?
Shall we open the door this time and take a full overview? Let us not crouch and fearfully peep to know what lies outside. If the world is too big for us, the joys and tears too are too big for us to fully fathom. For many of us, we just do not get the time to see beyond us; to see beyond the keyhole… We remain bogged down with our own affairs and mostly, with our trivial affairs.
This time, not through the keyhole then…
Open the door wide. Look all around. Perhaps, we shall see what is beyond the very obvious. Perhaps, when we open the door wide and peer closely, we shall be able to see beyond the dark clouds and happily spot the silver linings in the sky. Perhaps, as we open our door and step outside, and we see the dark clouds hovering over strangers or our loved ones---we shall be able to open our umbrellas just in time…