Let’s make a new sense out of our NYRs
| Date :29-Dec-2019 |
THE remarks of various people about their NYRs -- New Year Resolutions -- range from systematic to cynical. Some call NYRs a fraud, while some make systematic lists of things they wish to do or undo or achieve in the coming year -- New Year. And of course, we do hear a lot of people stating rather brazenly that they hate all that stuff of NYR! Through this maze, let us extract a right approach to New Year and the Resolutions thereby. Let us create a new sense out of what we wish to achieve in the New Year. Before we proceed deeper into the subject, let us not miss noting that many of us even deride New Year by saying, in effect, that ‘this is not our New Year, and so we don’t make any NYRs.’
This might be a legitimate idea of some people who would want to celebrate their New Years starting from Gudi Padva or Ugadi or Pateti or whatever ...! Let alone all that, the concept of New Year has its own excitement -- all for legitimate reasons. When a chunk of 365 days gets over and the people collectively and individually move on chronologically, they cannot ignore what happened in the year gone by and what they look forward to the new year promising to come in. That is where the idea of NYRs came in nobody-knows-when. Looking at various NYRs, one finds good enough reasons to either appreciate or feel happy about or laugh or cry or even decry. In fact, there is no need to be judgmental about what others do about their NYRs. For, all the resolutions belong to the individual persons and to no one else. Still, for the youngsters, here is a suggestion -- never advice -- to be considered while making NYRs.
The most important is to understand that life is never built of big events; it often goes on step-by-step, inch-by-inch, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year. So, when NYRs are being thought about, let us make a plan of building a fruitful year on the strength of small but meaningful resolutions. And once the NYRs are made, then let us go about implementing those systematically, one day at a time, consistently. In this regard, let me suggest that an ass -- donkey -- may be our good role model, simply for its consistency. That is the reason why there are sayings, ‘As consistent as ass’, or ‘Consistency is the virtue of an ass’. And this is not a gali to the ass or any cheap humour but actually an appreciation, out of a sense of learning the right thing. Thus, the first resolution may be in favour of consistency.
May God give us the strength to be consistent about whatever we decide to do or undo or achieve in the coming year. May God give us the power to reject the outward polish of things and do only the right thing in a systematic manner, in a consistent manner -- day in and day out -- for one full year. In that case, whatever we may decide as our annual goal will be good enough for us. When he was learning to bat systematically, Virat Kohli heard his coach say, in effect, ‘first master a stroke at a time, and then move on. And be consistent about that. This is not a small thing. This is the biggest virtue you would acquire’. Whatever we know or see or hear of Virat Kohli has stemmed from this small resolution -- may not be an NYR -- to be consistent. If this one virtue -- consistency -- we acquire, then no resolution is small enough to be ignored. In my humble opinion, this is the most enduring and endearing of NYRs -- to be consistent.
Tail piece: When I was a school boy, my father used to call me gadhav (‘ass’ or ‘donkey’ in English). I often loved that epithet as I sensed that it was steeped in deep affection for me. One day, he just stopped calling me ‘gadhav’. Hurt, I asked him, ‘Why?’ His reply was unique: “Look, I realise that you are not consistent in whatever you do, which is the virtue of an ass. So, I will not call you ‘gadhav’. I still carry that sense of hurt!