Let’s welcome the New Year with new energy, hope, and enthusiasm. Let’s see everything with a fresh and positive perspective. Look at all faces with new eyes. Search for novelty in everything. Look at our surroundings with new inspiration and hope. See towards the new path. Dream new dreams, create new paths, and start walking on them. Strengthen your willpower. Abandon hypocrisy. Have faith, be worthy of trust. Believe and win trust. Understand your dignity and also understand the importance of others.
So, the year 2023 silently slipped away, and we didn’t even hear a whisper. We slept well on the eve of the New Year, and the next morning, it became clear that the New Year had arrived. Where does the New Year,really, come from? Have we ever thought about this? The New Year is born from the womb of the past year. When the sun of the New Year rises in the sky, playing and laughing with its new rays, a poet’s lines come to mind:
“Look, the New Year’s sun has risen,
Dispelling darkness, spreading happiness,
Look, the New Year’s sun has risen.”
On the chariot of duty, the path of human life
To enlighten,
Look, the New Year’s sun has risen.
For the past few years, there has been a craze of broadcasting various colorful programs in the name of entertainment to welcome the New Year on both domestic and international media channels. Viewers, for a few hours, forget their sorrows and immerse themselves in the glamor of these programs, dreaming about the New Year. This is the view of the general audience. The way great personalities welcomed the New Year was different. Tamil literature’s successful poet Subramaniam Bharati is as famous for his poetry as he is for his philanthropy. It is said that throughout his life, whatever he received, he dedicated it to the destitute. It is said that he spent the first day of the year systematically alleviating the sufferings of the destitute. He would take off his new clothes and give them to beggars, and so on. Similarly, the world-renowned Indian engineer Sir M. Visvesvaraya is well-known! His curiosity to explore and learn new things remained with him throughout his life. He considered himself a curious student throughout his life. Being aware of the sense of duty, he spent the first day of the year systematically obtaining information about something new. This was his nature and his way of welcoming the New Year.
These ways of welcoming the New Year are so rare, joyful, and inspiring! If we also welcome the New Year with such a new resolution, how wonderful it would be. Silently remembering God, our resolution should be – “The New Year has begun. With new enthusiasm and new energy, I need to give a concrete form to my goal, and success will surely follow. No matter how many obstacles come, I will not deviate from my path of duty – my Lord is with me. In the New Year, I will show something -” If we do this, then the lines of the great poet Nirala will be meaningful, in which a wish for novelty for the entire world is expressed:
‘New rhythm, new tempo, new meters,
New throat, new melodious voice.
Give new melodies to the new flock of birds in the new sky,
Give new notes to the new strings.’
The lines of Great Hindi poet Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’ inspire us to move forward in life with new thoughts, new enthusiasm, and new zeal, just like the welcoming of the New Year. In essence, novelty dispels stagnation, and when stagnation is removed, the mind and spirit rise with enthusiasm, giving birth to a new realm of possibilities. Let’s all welcome the New Year with fresh enthusiasm, new determination, and a spirit of renewal, wishing that the new year brings a message of joy and peace for every individual in society.
The work done in various fields should be meaningful: the innocent laughter of children should remain undisturbed, the adornment of love should flourish, and may we all welcome the New Year with new energy, leaving behind feelings of envy, hatred, and other narrow-mindedness. In reality, the welcome of the New Year signifies a new consciousness, a new outlook, a new resolution, a commitment to do something new that has not been done before, and a willingness to let go of something that has become difficult to carry. Only by doing so can we truly welcome the New Year in its true sense.
The New Year is an opportunity to take a new resolution, one that we consistently uphold throughout the year. When a resolution is consistently fulfilled throughout the year, it becomes a habit, shaping our personality. Therefore, it is essential that we take a resolution on this occasion, no matter how small it may be. This resolution should be taken with careful consideration and a firm mind, and once taken, it should be fulfilled at any cost. Resolutions of this kind can take various forms.
Another thing to note is that human society is filled with various weaknesses. It would be completely wrong to claim, “I have no shortcomings.” In the New Year, we should also include in our resolutions the commitment to eliminate at least one specific shortcoming within ourselves. For example, controlling anger, overcoming laziness, ending feelings of envy within, and fostering sweetness in speech. In 2024, we need to adopt the importance of humility. Humility is a great human virtue; it can turn an enemy into a friend. Those whose nature is humble are loved by all. Such people receive respect everywhere.
Let’s welcome the New Year with new energy, hope, and enthusiasm. Let’s see everything with a fresh and positive perspective. Look at all faces with new eyes. Search for novelty in everything. Look at our surroundings with new inspiration and hope. See towards the new path. Dream new dreams, create new paths, and start walking on them. Strengthen your willpower. Abandon hypocrisy. Have faith, be worthy of trust. Believe, win trust. Understand your dignity and also understand the importance of others. Free yourself from prejudices before your memories. This is a difficult penance, but still, try. Memories should not become a burden. Turn memories into inspiration. Good memories give inspiration and happiness. Erase painful memories. Forget the shortcomings of the past year. We are entering a new year. Therefore, let’s hope that everything is new, everything is good, everything is auspicious. Let every task have a good beginning.
In the New Year, let’s also hope for a favorable path for the employment of the youth. May the economic downturn in business come to an end. Let there be a positive atmosphere for farmers. Let’s make a clean India. Ensure a decent standard of living for urban and rural life, with no wide gap between the rich and the poor, and the respect of all. We should never praise those who earn wealth through inappropriate means. In the New Year, we should also strive not to repeat the mistakes of the past year. Learn from the mistakes and failures of the past and strive to ensure success in life. Change with the changing times. Keep pace with the times. Update yourself so that you are not called outdated.
A new morning in this New Year: 2024, is ready to welcome us. Greet it with enthusiasm and pray to God:
May the affection among our loved ones persist,
May we touch the sky but keep our feet on the ground,
Consider this prayer, O Lord,
Turn everyone’s dreams into reality, O Lord.
The writer is Former Fellow at IIAS,Shimla and Senior Fellow,Ministry of Culture (Govt. of India), Currently in Dubai (UAE)
