I am
reminded of one little incident from my school days, when I must have
been studying in sixth or seventh grade that year. During last week
of December, our class teacher had asked all the boys (ours was 'only
for boys' school) in the class to make New Year Resolutions to
improve our lifestyles as students and to become responsible members
of our respective families. He had said that he would expect all the
boys to read out their new year resolutions on the first day of the
new year.
On the
appointed day, the class teacher asked all of us to read our
resolutions one after another. We all listened in rapt attention as
all my classmates came up with grandiose plans to improve their
lives. Almost everyone had planned to study regularly- some even for
4 to 6 hours each day. Almost everyone planned to restrict time spent
playing on playgrounds or in the house yard. Everyone planned to eat
only healthy food and avoid sweets and oily stuff. Without fail,
everyone wanted to adopt a neat and clean way of behaviour.
On
behavioural side, everyone promised to be more obedient and planned
to follow the school discipline. No scuffles in the class or on play
ground. No paper arrows in the class. (we used to have competitions
to make paper arrows from pages torn from our exercise books and make
them hit the ceiling. The boy whose arrow would stick to the ceiling
for maximum interval of time would be the winner.) Some said that
they would regularly take bath. Most wanted to take up some hobby or
other. Postage stamp collection was a favourite. There were some odd
resolutions too. One boy wanted to read as many books as possible.
Another wanted to fly a kite everyday and another one wanted to learn
by heart, religious scriptures like “Bhavadgita” or poetry like
“RamaRaksha.”
After
all the boys had spoken, our class teacher summarised. He said that
he was very happy to learn, what everyone wanted to do. He was candid
enough to admit that he does not expect even 99% of the resolutions
to be followed in the coming year. The main idea behind this project
was to make us think about what we think was wrong with our lives and
whether we would be honest enough to admit that we need to improve.
To that extent the objective of the project has been achieved. This
little lesson, learnt from our class teacher's project during my
school days, had impacted me deeply about making new year
resolutions. I have since then (definitely for more than 65 years)
never ever made a single new year resolution on any new year's day.
People
make all kinds of new year resolutions. Some decide to give up
smoking, drinking. Some want to start an exercise regime seriously.
Some resolutely decide to diet and reduce their bulge and the weight.
Some decide to start playing tennis or to go for a jog. Most of these
resolutions turn into nine day wonders and are given up within days
if not in weeks. If this is the case, does making new year
resolutions has any relevance at all? I think that it has some
relevance and importance too.
Contrary
to our belief, the fundamental nature of time is cyclic. We might
think of time as something that starts with one's birth and ends with
his death. But that is in reality only an illusion, because of the
memories stored in our brain. The time begins each year at some point
solely determined by the relative positions of earth and sun and ends
365 days later, when another year begins. All natural phenomenon like
rains, weather, flowering of trees, connected with our lives, go
through this one year cycle. This means that at the beginning of
every year ( the starting point can differ as decided by religions or
by nations, which have no real meaning here) we actually begin life
afresh. Once this basic concept is understood, it would be easy to
figure out, why we want to make new year resolutions, which might be
done on 1st
January or on “Gudhi Padwa”- the new year day as per Hindu
calender or on first day of Chinese new year.
Once
we accept that life begins afresh after every 365 days, the popular
concept of making new year resolution makes some sense. Because we
are starting something afresh we do retrospection and try to find out
what needs improvements in our daily life style and decide to make
corrections. Unfortunately our minds are very quickly tempted by
little pleasures of life and we tend to fall for these comforts and
quietly give a burial to ideas of following more stricter regimes,
which may be actually be more beneficial to us in the long turn but physically stressful. Besides, deciding to do something
uncomfortable in future, but starting it after a few more days, is
definitely more soothing than doing it immediately, as our immediate
comfort is not disturbed
I have
always believed that a new year day is only a marker to mark the
end/beginning of a cyclical round of time. Thinking of doing
something good on only this one particular day in an entire year
appears to me as not a particularly bright idea. I would rather do
the introspection as a continuous day to day process and would rather
come up with resolutions immediately, on any day of the year and
start it implementing. Suppose that due to some indulgence on my
part, I have gained few kilos of weight, I would take corrective
action the day I realise that things are going out of hand and would
not wait for the new year to begin. If I want to start playing
Tennis, I would start it immediately and not wait for new year to
begin.
My
advice for everyone is not to wait for the new year day but rather
start, whatever you want to do immediately on next day itself.
3rd
January 2014
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