Kerala

Hopes and fears for New Year

It is that time of the year when most people think of their bad habits.

For, more often than not, the resolution to usher in the New Year is about the determination, or so it appears in the beginning, to kick those habits.

“Why should an auspicious occasion like the New Year be converted into an opportunistic deadline to end our appalling habits,” asks Jayadeep Narasimhan, a senior executive with a prominent sanitary wares company in the city.

Besides, he feels that New Year resolutions are a mirage that could never be attained. So, this time around, Mr. Narasimhan had resolved not to take any resolution.

Last year, he had taken the resolution to save for a new home by quitting drinks. If Mr. Narasimhan is to be believed, he stuck to his resolve till the global economy kind of pulled the rug from under his feet in the form of a meltdown.

As he found that he was not saving much from being a teetotaller, he took out that unfinished bottle from the cupboard.

E.M. Mujeeb, a government employee, has decided to go the same path as his friend in not taking any New Year resolution. But Manoj Kumar, a medical transcriptionist, has still not lost hope in the concept of New Year resolution.

So he has taken as firm a resolution to quit smoking as he has adopted some years ago! “Usually, I stick to the resolution for some months before giving in. But this time, I am very determined to see it through,” he says straight-faced while puffing on cigarette after cigarette on the eve of the New Year as if to make up for the impending quit.

Syam S., a doctor at a private hospital in the city, is neither a firm believer nor an opponent of resolutions. Hence, he goes for a moderate resolution of being polite to his fellow motorists on road even when they are at fault. Felt respect for his sudden compassion for road users? Then wait. He had a dreadful experience when he tried to outwit a motorist following a minor road mishap without knowing that his opponent was a policeman in plainclothes.

Then come the likes of Ramaswamy, a senior executive with a multinational money exchange company, who think that they are yet to be infested with any bad habit to give in to silly concepts like resolutions. To him, a couple of drinks there and a few cigarettes here seem quite normal to think of a resolution to quit them.

Irrespective of the stark difference in their take on resolutions, they all celebrated the New Year in pretty much the same way. They were equally apprehensive looking at the days ahead as the economy fails to inspire confidence.

Praveen M.P.

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