By Kulbhushan Kain
A New Year (in particular New Year’s Eve) always evokes a festive atmosphere. Now that I have grown fairly old, I really cannot see a reason why it should be so. As far as I am concerned, it signifies the chopping off of another branch from my tree of life. Though I don’t exactly feel bad about a year gone past – I don’t overly get excited about a new one. I can’t for the life of me see why people dance, hop, drink and eat as if tomorrow would not come.
But I must admit that I was wild and Bohemian when I was younger and in college.
The way we greeted each other those days was different. We would receive a lot of cards and occasionally telephone calls wishing “A Happy New Year”. But you were sure that anyone doing so was at least thinking about you! And sometimes, your very near and dear ones would drop into your residence with a cake or pastries. And with a lot of hugs. We would sit around TV and watch Ramu Damodaran with his baritone voice recount “A year that has gone past”. Those were not the days of the internet and Ramu would remind us of the salient features that had occurred in the year that was coming to a close. We would then watch black and white entertainment programmes on Doordarshan, which dot at 12 midnight would light up our television screens with crackers and fireworks bursting for a couple of minutes. Everyone would then get up, raise their glasses and clink them saying, “Happy New Year”. We would all dance as if we were accompanying a baraat –very bhangra style – on music played on tapes which sometimes would get mangled. Mahesh, my cousin, would whistle by putting 2 fingers into his mouth. The fellow never seemed to tire!
I can’t forget one particular New Year’s Eve Party when I started earning. (I forget the year – probably 1984) in Defence Colony, New Delhi, where after a bout of gallons of drinks the host (a highly placed executive in Otis), took us to the Hyatt Hotel for dinner. After eating our food, I saw him pull out his credit card to pay. I had never seen a credit card (we did not have many credit cards holders in India those days. I still remember his was an HSBC one, and through a foggy mind, blurry eyes and a slurry tongue I told him (with a giggle), “Pradhan (name changed), you have given him your visiting card!”
Visiting cards were common those days. Pradhan, because he was fairly drunk, thought that he had actually given his visiting card. He did not know that I did not know the difference between a visiting card and a credit card. So, he started searching for his credit card! He was obviously not going to find it since the waiter had taken it. The waiter took about 20 minutes to get it back, since it used to take a whole lot of written work to note down the number, the name, address, etc., on the card. It was not like these days where one just had to swipe.
But we now live in a different age. We live in the age of credit and debit cards. We live in the age of WhatsApp messages. If you are an active social media member – you will get thousands from your “friends”. Most of them you may not even recollect. Leaving aside 40 or so – none of them probably even know you. Yes – they may have met you somewhere and you would have exchanged visiting cards, which must have been stored in their phone or sim cards’ contact list. All they probably must have done was to have gone on their “contacts” list and then entered “select all” or “mark all”, write or copy a typical message, “Wishing you and all your loved ones the very best for 2013. May the year ahead be filled with peace, prosperity and good health. Have a great day.” After doing that, Mr Khurana (name changed) just has to press the function key “send to all”. And hey presto – so nice of Mr Khurana. He loves you. He sends good wishes. He remembers you. He is so sweet –he did not forget you! Wow –you are so important for Mr Khurana. And you don’t even know who he is.
Don’t feel too important – Mr Khurana also may not know you or where he met you. You are just on his phone book. Period.
There are some really interesting messages that do the rounds in bulk. Here is one sent to me last year from someone I can’t seem to place – तमाम सबूतों और गवाहों को मद्देनजर रखते हुए, आप को धारा 1/1/2024 के तहत, एक दिन पहले HAPPY NEW YEAR कहते हुए, जिंदगी भर खुश रहने की सज़ा दी जाती है”.
My wife got the same message and my son got the same message – but from different people.
I never feel good about such forwarded messages. I love it when someone sends me a simple message like “Happy New Year Sir”, or “Happy New Year Mr Kain”. At least the person knows who he/she is sending the message to. Just inserting a “Sir”, or “Mr Kain” makes it evident that the person at least had you in mind. To those kind of messages, I go overboard. I always reply to them by name and always insert a smiley – a heart, a hug, a wink. To all the others, I select them 10 at a time and insert a message “Thank you very much. Same to you”. And press the “send to all” button!
However, irrespective of the age and the times we live in, I wish everyone a wonderful 2025. As far as we know, the earth is the only planet in the universe on which life exists. It exists because of the air we breathe and the water we drink. Let’s hope and strive for cleaner air and use our water judiciously so that we keep celebrating life and the years.
(Kulbhushan Kain is an award winning educationist with more than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves cricket, travelling and cooking. He can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
