Dear Editor,
Right from the moment of commencement of a New Year, deafening crackers reverberate across the midnight sky rendering horror in the vulnerable hearts of infant, children, senior citizens, sick and the animal world. The party continues on the streets, bars, night clubs with utmost hooliganism. With the arrival of dawn, picnic parties start their journey towards various destinations playing music in decibels much more than permissible limit.
A “majestic” start of the New Year indeed! However this frenzied activity neither requires any concrete effort nor serves any real purpose. People with loads of money and time to waste can easily do it. Moreover do the New Year revellers ever wonder a bit about the feeling of the unfortunate souls who lose their near and dear ones on that date or have to attend any critical relative in Hospitals? Less said about the plight of the unprivileged hearts the better who have to deal with acute hunger and injustice year after year. The arrival of a New Year does not put any balm on their starved stomachs or uplift them from their utter helpless situation.
The revellers absolutely miss the actual relevance of a new calendar. This is the right juncture to clean up their souls and engage themselves in a bit of introspection. Barring few enlightened exceptional persons, lot of shortcomings and deficiencies invade our characters. Moreover sky has no limit. So there lies lot of scope for improvement to bring within our personalities. Instead of accusing others, why don’t we stand in front of the mirror embedded in our conscience and make a comprehensive list of our sins and wrong acts? We should make a resolution to lead our lives in a healthy manner not only in terms of hygiene or official duties; but also in matters concerning relations with family members, neighbours, colleagues and the society as a whole? Is it too much a task? Yes, partying and shouting are no doubt easier, but we can do it throughout the year! If we continue to engage ourselves in such acts in New Year also, where will the special significance of the red-letter day lie? A mere change of date and calendar only! And another pretext to party harder?
Unless we refresh our souls and take sincere vow to bring a real change in our personalities and society, the New Year will never achieve its real significance.
Yours,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata