New Year - 2011

It is such an exciting thing - people filled with glee exchanging wishes and rushing to stores to get gifts. I like the idea of people willing to spend a lot in the last week of the year. All the retail stores take advantage of this and have unrealistic 'special' offers. 'Who would need 50 cans of coke at a 3 dollar discount?', I thought to myself. Minutes later I see an old man loading his shopping cart with a hundred cans. I guess I was dead wrong.

And on the first of January (today), I realise that the mood has changed. The shopping malls are empty. Maybe the buyers feel it is too late. Even the retailers are discouraging. All the signs of special offers are gone. Or maybe I was not looking in the right places. Either way, it makes least sense and is irrelevant to what I was thinking about before I started writing this post.

I love the idea of a 'New Year'. It feels like I have been given a second chance; like opening a new book or tearing off the used pages in old one and starting afresh (I personally like the 'sellotape idea'). Even the ones who don't believe in a New Year make resolutions. It is a psychologically satisfying thing. But what interests me most is not the beginning of the New Year, but the ending of the old one. The last few days are the 'days that don't count'.

Procrastinators (a great example being me) feel the least guilt during these days. It is almost like you have the right to push things to the beginning of the year. It feels so right. Take this post for example - I wanted to write a post everyday in the last week of December. And I post the first one on the first of January. I rest my case.

And yeah, wish you all a very Happy New Year. Mind you, I wish you not for religious reasons, but to give a tiny serving of hope so you start whatever you have had in your mind for months and had been pushing it away for now. If you haven't started it by today, don't bother. I shall remind you next year!