Celebrating Life

Fireworks! Parties! Filled up pubs and discos! Crazy drivers! Packed beaches and roads! People living it up like there’s no tomorrow! All this at midnight! Another typical celebration to mark the beginning of a new year according to the Gregorian calendar… In India alone, there are hundreds of other calendars in existence and practice which have the birth of their new year lined up. Quite a few ‘brand new’ years to be excited about!

I somehow, do not share such excitement, nor do I feel it. In my humble opinion, many people, if not most people around the world seem to have constrained time to a calendar and a clock. In my opinion, the celebration to mark the birth of a new year is just an excuse for procrastination. It is just an excuse for being happy.

The question that repeats in my head is, “If a calendar does not exist, how would this day be different from any other day?” The sun would rise the same way it has done for eons. The breeze would blow, the trees would grow, the flowers would bloom and the rivers would flow. Hmmm… Nothing seems to have changed the course of nature. Nature doesn’t seem to have realized the significance of the birth of a new year! Or is it just we, the humans, who have outwitted and outlearnt nature and have realized the ‘true’ value of time? I just don’t think so.

Let me state a couple of examples. Imagine a situation in which a scientist and a first grader are put in the same room to watch cartoons for a whole day. In all probability, time would fly for the kid and it would just come to a standstill for the scientist. For a person waking up from coma in the middle of June, if we were to tell him that he has woken up on the First of January, he’d simply accept it without questions. Or as Einstein explained the theory of relativity, “Time flies when you’re with your loved one. It doesn’t when you’re sitting on a hot pan”. Time is relative. Time is subjective. Time is just a perception.

Having said that, what is my two cents on time? In my perception, time exists only in the mind. And the only time that exists, is “NOW”. I have no power to go back in time and change what has happened. I have no power to go forward in time to see what the future holds for me. I’m just left with something in the present with which I can either learn from the past or work on something to create a desired future. And as I am typing this, time passes away like a stream. Never can I step into the same water again. And slowly I realize that nothing is as far away, as a moment gone by.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow’s a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the ‘present’

“Tuesdays with Morrie” is a beautiful book that I have read. It’s the story of a dying man meeting up one of his yester year students every Tuesday to do one final thesis - on life. For anyone who is too worried about the past, or the future, this book is a ‘must read’. The book beautifully illustrates, in the form of simple dialogues, how precious every moment is. And when a man who knows he’ll die in a few days speaks about time, it drives home the message in a very subtle yet powerful manner. It strings up a series of thoughts when I think, “How would I live my life if I know that I will not wake up to see the sunrise tomorrow?”

Thousands of people die of malnutrition, hunger, disease and accidents every single moment. What makes us think that we are exceptions? What gives us the guarantee that we would somehow live long enough to do everything that we want to? What makes us think that we may not meet with an accident or have a heart attack the next moment? What makes us believe that an unknown, mutated form of an incurable virus wouldn’t infect us today? What guarantee do we have that we will see each other tomorrow?

So, what makes the first of January according to the Gregorian calendar so special that everyone wants to live life to the fullest starting that day? Why not the first of February? Why not March? Why not LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST EVERY SINGLE DAY , EVERY SINGLE MOMENT?!