New Year, New beginning?

A new year brings with it an array of new possibilities and the desire to set out on the “better me” path. A new beginning to a new life filled with new dreams and new hopes. 

People’s expectation from this New Year was no different. On the New Year Eve, everyone carried a hope in his heart – the arrival of New Year will bring revolutionary changes that will make the world a better place to live.

Thoughts on my mind were not different.

I woke up the next morning, yearning to see the rosy glow diffusing into the orange light that covers the sky, to feel the soft wind caressing my hair as it flows by, to see the streets huddled with smiling faces — some warming up with a cup of coffee in the nearby café, others carrying a long list of resolutions. 

As I bent over the balcony, I was disappointed with the scene below. It seemed like any other day. Cars resting in the parking lots. The grey pavements covered with dust with no souls wandering upon. The sky plain blue with minor white clouds blotched across it.

An eerie silence was holding the reins. No excitement in the air. Nothing that would give you the high spirits or let you believe it actually is a new year. 

As I stepped out from my apartment to visit the nearby café, I saw the guard sitting in his cabin as usual. It seemed as if the New Year was just another mark on the calendar for him. 

Guests at the café were trying to re-energise themselves with a mug of coffee. But even the strong aroma of their favourite drinks failed to fill the air with excitement that was witnessed on the New Year Eve. 

It reminded me of the words of famous American essayist and educationist Hamilton Wright Mabie: “New Year’s Eve is like every other night, there is no pause in the march of the universe…”

(Published in The Gulf Today on January 7, 2017)