Happy New What?

Remember that big lie that came out in 2000?  That the new millennium was being born on January 1st?  How easily the world bought this nonsense, even though the truth was that the millennium was actually born one year later on January 1st, 2001!

How does the world lose its senses on New Years Eve?

How is a New Year Day any more important or worth celebrating than any other day?  Why should January 1st mark the New Year?  If a "year" marks a full revolution of the earth around the sun, why can't the universal New Year begin on one of the solstice days, when the earth's axis begins a new angle of tilt?  Would that not be precise and natural?  Now we not only have various people celebrating various New Year Days, but also idiots that want to, in the same calendar, change it from one to the other, based on some whim, like they have tried to do in Tamilnadu and failed.

More importantly to me, what is the celebration all about?  It is not like 1st January 2011 is going to be any better in ANY way compared to 31st December 2010!  In fact, it is going to be much worse, since a lot of people will be drunk, inefficient, driving badly and slow in thinking.  The most unproductive of days in the year has to be the 1st of January.  How can the rest of the year be any good if we get to such bad starts?

We have several different calendars in India, and indeed, several different New Years.  So, if Sundays are the beginning of weeks, why not have a New Week Day every Sunday?  In any case, we're pretty slow on Mondays, and also have the most number of heart attacks on Mondays!  So, why not celebrate a little bit before taking on the danger of the dreaded Monday?

Anything different we can do this time?

Enough of resolutions we cannot honour, promises we cannot keep, and beginnings to new ideas that go nowhere.

Our lives must be really boring if we have to wait for a date on a calendar to celebrate, party, have a good time for whatever reason.  Still, New Years is really NO reason to celebrate.  Especially if we are leading such dull dreary lives that the mere arrival of a date should get us all excited.

If we were to bring some quality to our lives, we'd be doing whatever it takes to make our lives worthwhile every second we are alive, grateful for the opportunity each moment brings to us, and we'd lead healthy lives, without stress, going into a sound sleep every night, waking up without the pressure of routine life, enjoying clean air, great food, great friends, and have plenty of energy for a lot of activity.  We would not have any negative thoughts and no unclean emotions.  We'd be excited about every moment of our lives yet to unfold, and we'd be fulfilled in every way.

Instead, most of us choose rather stupidly, to be sold on the rigour of ordinary life, sacrificing quality of life to improve our standard of living, and when we do get to a higher standard of living, remain so scared of lowering it that we never get to a better quality of life.

So, how about, this NEW YEAR, since we are so adamant about celebrating this great celestial event that doesn't even fall on the same day for all humans, do something to improve our lives, individually and collectively?  How about taking the whole day off thinking about "what" it is that can actually make each of our lives better, and doing that not just today but for the rest of our lives?  After all, if the world might end in 2012, the least we can do is spend some time with our "selves".

Welcome 2011!

Cheers.