A big part of my discomfiture lies in the fact that I'm really not at ease in crowds and especially not when a sense of menace hangs in the air and I'm with ladies who have to constantly dodge and weave to keep gropers and would be molesters away. All of it, of course, would also make infinitely more sense and be worth the trouble if we were out and about to see some fireworks instead of going out simply to get plastered and ring in the New Year.
Anyway, while my venues, company and celebration styles are all variables, there remains one constant that is a feature of most of my new years – and indeed of many people's round the world. It's the New Year's resolution. It's that time of the year when we decide to take stock of our lives, resolve to make changes in the coming New Year and spend the last few days of the year going overboard in indulging the very habits we want to change.
It is a recurring psychological event in which the lure of 'starting from a clean slate' and the promise of 'self-improvement' in the form of lifestyle changes is built up, in most cases, to lead to eventual disappointment. Dr Samuel Johnson, the English writer's rather pithy observation of second marriages as 'the triumph of hope over experience' would seem to be just as applicable to New Year resolutions.
I assume that all those reading this and naive enough to have made resolutions are still soldiering on with it. I've never been particularly good at keeping resolutions and I've made them all – from quitting all manner of cancerous habits to hitting the gym, getting a new job to even a resolution to stop making resolutions. My particular favorite and one that I inevitably make every year – and is surprisingly common – is a resolution to stop procrastination.
This is the year that I decide that I would finally do this or that and that I wasn't going to be one of those people who would die wondering. I (like most people) initially burst out of the blocks only for old habits to die hard and end up becoming a multi-tasking procrastinator managing to put off just about everything at once. So my only New Year resolution this year is one of financial austerity. This too isn't one of my own commitments, rather one that has been foisted on me by my wife. It's been one week and I'm pleased to say that my compulsion to behave like Uncle Scrooge is still holding firm.
I often think that we Nepalis are lucky in the sense that we actually get a minimum of two shots at making and keeping resolutions – if one does not count the myriad other cultural New Year holidays. If you fail during the first half of this year you can always start fresh from the Nepali New Year which is about 100 days away. It is rather conveniently placed giving us just about enough time to fall off the resolution bandwagon, indulge in excesses again, and then start the whole cycle of promises and commitments once again. On the other hand, we are unlucky to be hamstrung by the shortages of gas, petrol and electricity. As if keeping resolutions was not hard enough in itself.
While we may need an occasion to make tall promises of self-improvement that are destined for failure, our politicians don't really need any such occasion. They will shamelessly make them all year round. Their commitments, of the 'blockade will end in a few days' or 'load shedding will end in a year' variety are flexible unlike Salman Khan's, who after making a commitment apparently doesn't even listen to himself.
While the year may be new, we're still saddled with the same old politicians, the same old mentality and despite promulgation of the constitution, the same old problems. We do not really foment the kind of misplaced optimism we do on our resolutions to the commitments that our politicians make unless they happen to be achievable. But again we are talking about politicians and their promises. Dr Johnson may be pleased to note that in the case of Nepalis, it is a 'triumph of experience over hope'. Happy New Year 2016!
gunjan.u@gmail.com
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