Happy New Year 2017!

During the New Years celebrated at our home during my childhood, I used to do something strange. After waking up in the morning, I would come out of the house, look at the sky and the plants around for a hint of change. I would see the same Sun, same plants and everything in nature remaining the same as it was the day before. My little mind at that time was incapable of understanding the concept of New Years and new beginnings. Hence I would remain contemplating as to what was special about these New Years.

After becoming an adult and starting to understand the ways of the world, I have got this conviction of Time being a stupid and senseless concept invented by us, the self-centered humans. But, ironically, the passage of Time has its own way of teaching some precious lessons to us. One such lesson is that Time is a necessary evil so that we humans can have a sense of bearing about the things that happen to us, in our own limited ways. Without concepts like hours, days, weeks and years, our little minds become incapable of processing life, just the same way a reader will not be able to follow a book without line, paragraph and page breaks.

The year 2016 saw me waiting for that much essential 'break' in Time too. Having had a tough year that tested my endurance physically, emotionally, and professionally, I was in dire straits to say the least. With my spirits sunken, I was awaiting that symbolic change into 2017. It was just then, during the last few days of 2016, that the most essential life lesson arrived from 'teachers' of unexpected kind.

The teachers were none other than the trees of Chennai. Having been whipped around by Vardah storm, their limbs twisted and ripped apart, foliage all shorn off, the trees wore a ghastly look in the aftermath of that storm. But a fortnight or so later, the trees were no longer wallowing in self-pity. Even the trees that were broken into two had many little sprouts coming up all along their remaining branches. If a so-called inanimate being could weather the worst calamity with such stoic stability, what can't we 'sentient' beings do when faced with the challenges of life, most of which happen to be self-imposed?!

That was when the spirit of a new beginning and the new year caught up with me. Challenges are neither here to make us nor to break us. There are no challenges for one who learns what life is all about. As far the rest of us humans, life is worth tasting in its whole gamut.

So, in the next 365 days, remember and resolve to eat healthy food, take care of your body, exercise more, nurture your mind with good books, become more spiritual, listen to good quality music, play with the children often, participate more for philanthropic causes, pamper yourself with health and wellness packages, love your near and dear ones more, forget not to tell them so, become angry for good reasons, play some new sport, learn a new language, acquire a new hobby, travel more and dream even more, so that when the year 2018 arrives, you - the better you - can look back on this day and say 'Woah! This year was a happy year indeed!'

Wish you all an amazing 2017 and abundant love!  ❤