For years together, I have experienced that people are overwhelmingly excited and energized towards the end of the year. This excitement climaxes on the 31^st December as the clock approaches towards midnight 12.00 AM and the night is celebrated like a festival welcoming the arrival of the New Year. At least one good thing about the day is that unlike other festivals or occasions, this one is jointly celebrated by people all and sundry irrespective of their religion, region, cast and creed throughout the whole planet. People are awake till late night, celebrate and welcome the arrival of the New Year in various ways.

Being in government service and at fairly senior position, I recall till a few years back the year end mail was flooded and flurry of new year cards/mails from friends, relatives, in service professionals and interestingly, many individuals whom I have never met and perhaps either of us would not recognize if happen to meet per chance. I have never been able to match the pace except one thing that I would make it sure to invariably respond if someone addresses or communicates me.

Now the trend has changed with the advancement of IT and applications like Whatsapp and Viber have made significant headway and perhaps would soon overtake all other conventional means of greetings on such auspicious occasions. However, the flip side of this development is that the personal touch and warmth is vanishing and things are increasingly becoming routine and mechanical. For illustration, one gentleman, while sending his greetings to me this year, didn’t even bother to substitute the name of the unknown person whose message he forwarded to me to save typing.

A majority of us are in the habit of making resolutions on the eve of the New Year which centre around things like career, professional work, health, education or about getting rid of some bad or avoidable habits like smoking or booze. But in most of the cases these resolutions are made only to break in a matter of days or at best forgotten after a few weeks. I usually avoid assessing others but in my own case I distinctly remember that I have never made any resolution on the New Year eve nor I have ever insisted on people around to do so for the simple reason that to start a good thing you don't need an auspicious day. And, of course, if I have ever picked any routine as a habit or any relationship, which I felt was right, I have never missed or abandoned it in life, and for this I have never waited for any auspicious occasion or day in simple belief that every day is as good.

I live life my own way. This does not mean that people should not make and celebrate special occasions. My only submission is that we ought to know where we are really going in life. What is the use of making resolutions, if we cannot honour and stick to that?  Would it not be a better choice to make some kind of achievable target instead of simply entering into New Year resolutions with a blank or uncertain mind? James Allen, a spiritual writer, once wrote, “Every day is a new birth in time, holding out new beginnings, new possibilities and new achievements.”

We can do things even without waiting for any occasion, and of course there is no harm too if people consciously choose an occasion for this. We shall sooner than later analyze our own life as to what is neglected or amiss. For illustration, to begin with, some of the target areas could be keeping ourselves physically fit through healthy diet and exercise, improving our personal and professional skills through regular practice and learning, improving own finances with better management of resources rather than blindly running after money, getting rid of unhealthy or avoidable addictions, and even contributing to, if possible, for the betterment of the community, unprivileged or society where we live.