I won’t wish you a Happy New Year …

I won’t wish you a Happy New Year

For two reasons.

First, if you are a happy soul,

You’ll manage without good wishes.

But if you weren’t,

Mere goodwill wouldn’t possibly be of help.

Because – although it’s a timeworn cliché –

Happiness doesn’t depend on what’s outside,

But on how you are

within yourself.

Therefore, I’d just tell you

To keep being happy,

Or else, you must teach yourself

To be. No one else can.

To put it simply,

Let everyone become Bhutan.

*

I won’t wish you a Happy New Year

Because we’ve been wishing each other

Sometime from our heart,

Sometimes like programmed robots.

But it hasn’t really changed anything.

The year that’s going to end in an hour

And an added second

Has been terrible.

And if there was light

At the end of the proverbial tunnel,

We couldn’t see it.

You may say I am a cynic.

But in the time we live in,

It’s insane not to be one.

Haven’t we read about the Dark Ages,

That perhaps began with the murder

Of a woman, Hypatia,

A mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher,

And when a library was burnt down

In Alexandria?

These days,

Far too many women are being murdered.

And the contempt for

Scientists and social scientists

Is palpable.

Smart people do not think

They earn money … and live a good life.

Live a good life, enjoy!

Burn fire crackers

As the world is poised at the edge of a precipice.

Can we stop and think – 

What’s gone wrong?

And how much

I have added to the mess?

To put it simply,

Can we look within and say:

‘I’ll be the change I want to happen’?

And wish the world

Less violence,

Less falsehood, and

Less hatred

In 2017.

Bengaluru / 31 December 2016