The Hindu Business Line : Can we make it a really New Year?

Despite wishing each other happiness every New Year, humanity is no nearer to unlocking its secrets. For at least 2,600 years since Gautama the Buddha, many have pointed out the prevalence of the opposite — deep and abiding sorrow, its sources and the means to remove them — but not with much conspicuous success. So, can we at least try to realise the ‘new’ part this time? This implies being prepared to challenge our old ways of living and try someth ing creative, making life more interesting, more original; and then, we may chance upon the way to living the good life.

How to begin

We can begin with how we mark the first day. We can contact some friends and relations whom we have not met or thought about for a long while. Give them a surprise, and leave them maybe wondering what your motives might be — but assure them that it was just a New Year whim. We all have friends who have slipped out of our circle for some reason. Hunt them out drop them a line or call.

Next, you can send all your friends, as some already do, a chatty (and if possible humorous) letter with a resume of what life had been like for you in 2007. In other words, make up for not being in touch for 12 months. Another way of marking the day is to save some of the money spent on parties, cards and postage and send a donation to some charitable cause. One could do this without exercising the option of flooding the airwaves with messages, emails and e-cards. Surely a line along with a regular letter of email in the normal course would do just as well.

Change yourself

More significant for me is the question: What have I learnt, done differently and learnt afresh during the past year? One important thing I heard for the first time from a top manager during 2007 was that “we can never really change other people, we can only change ourselves”. This casual remark truly opened my eyes. It is a truth about life that I had only been vaguely aware of; was I perhaps afraid to speak of it openly; because as a consultant, one subscribes to the dominant notion that big sweeping changes can and must be made — and with the help of outsiders.

Which of my bad habits have I managed to get rid of or at least reduce to some extent? For instance, am I bit more courteous, or compassionate? Were there any mistakes at all that taught me so much that I shall never repeat them? Have I learnt a new game, a new subject, explored a new region or country, or made a few good friends during 2007? Have I learnt how not to be negative or grow pessimistic, despite the encircling gloom of political and economic chaos and ever spreading violence? Can I remain calm but not indifferent to the world? Can I not let the images others hold about me to sway my actions — but rather do something for its own sake because it is worth doing?

We could set ourselves such questions as pointers for the incoming year, even if we have not paid them much attention during the past one. We might then be on the way to making it a truly new year this time!

S. RAMACHANDER

sr.chander@gmail.com