Ringing a Happier New Year in Uncertain Times
‘I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it’ —Maya Angelou
By Col Satish Singh Lalotra
The year just gone by, plagued by all doom and gloom may not be so, when itcomes to ringing in the fresh new year of 2024 since it all depends upon us to make the period ahead as memorable and enjoyable as within our realm. With still an uncharted timeline in front of us who else can master this time as per our wont? But naturally it is we ourselves. There is much to lament, much to loathe and more to dread in these difficult and uncertain times. Marred by the April 2023 Nablus incursion,the Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno- Karabakh ,Nduga hostage crisis, Nigerian bandit conflict / coup d’etat and the still raging last October Hamas –Israel conflagration witnessing no end to sight;the choice seems to be very little between fear and despair for the world denizens in the just ushered in 2024. But yet I would stand firmly and choose hope—hope for the extraordinary.
It is tough to be optimistic about future prospects when the world at large has just got out from the shadows of the corona pandemic, killing millions and wreaking havoc in the lives and livelihoods of countless people everywhere, when global warming threatens our very existence on this earth and when poor governments around the globe tackling of the first does not bode well for addressing the second. Though it is difficult to see the bigger picture during hard times, the world in my opinion is in fact better off today than it has ever been in the past. Thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of so many ,on the whole people are better fed, clothed ,educated ,sheltered and connected as one can recollect in the past one century of human mankind’s recorded history. As a human civilization, we are healthier, wealthier and more secure regional conflagrations notwithstanding.
Be that as it may, yet as an Indian I certainly understand why this may ring hollow to the many who have suffered terribly from the pandemic, displacement caused by the Manipur ethnic riots, poverty and more. I can very well contemplate why many would disagree when there is a talk about new cold war, about Russia and china invading their neighbors show casing their hegemony in varied ways that was not so well received by the world at large. What other choice do we have? Living a life of dread and trepidation is no life worth living.
Without indulging into much hyperbole, pessimism is sheer laziness, indifference is inhumane, and cynicism is just cowardly. Fatalism is self-fulfilling stupidity and escaping into a reimagined past that itself is an exercise in futility. Then what is the million dollar answer to all the above infirmities that seem to erupt from our present troubles so as to inhibit us in ringing in a true new year of 2024? Any guesses? The answer lies in reposing our full 100% trust in future that we are very much capable of casting in a mold as per our requirements. And that is why I think we should do better; we can do better; we must do better. Indeed my hope as stated earlier lies in our capacity to shape our own destiny, in our unprecedented ability and inherent resilience to change things for the betterment for all, if only we Indians summon all the will and grit at our command to do it. Never in the history of our Indian sub-continent have the ruling dispensation as well as the masses come on top of things to indulge in capacity-building as well as to deal with societal ills and natural plus man-made disasters as on date. The silver lining in this gloom and doom of the year just gone by had been exhibited in ample measure at the nerve wrecking ‘Silkyara tunnel rescue’ by the combined might of the govt of the day supported by a national resolve to get all the tunnel diggers out before time ran out. What more a human being can relish for posterity when he knows that there are people and an entire ecosystem to support him when things seem to go downhill for him.
Today’s scientists can forecast natural calamities well in advance like never before. Some may downplay, ignore or deny climate change, but they can claim ignorance no more. Indeed thanks to science and technology, governments and corporations are bound to do more towards amelioration of human misery and despondency as compared to earlier times. As a matter of fact if we take our minds back to the corona pandemic days, the vaccine for this dreaded pandemic was produced with in a short time frame to alleviate the masses from this scourge. Though in the interim period lakhs died, but then it did provide relief around the globe as compared to the dreaded ‘Spanish flu ‘of 1918 that infected approximately one third of the world population.
Even Mahatma Gandhi’s nephews were not spared by this pandemic of 1918. The fact that these vaccines did not reach the neediest in their final hours of existence was a political problem and not a scientific one. Politics could and should not be the continuation of common will through other means; but it should be management of power towards better ends. I feel this should be the lasting theme for the proper heralding of New Year 2024. Many of our troubles come not from lack of resources, but rather from their mismanagement and misdistribution. A case in point to bolster my above mentioned argument was the massive earthquake of 26 January 2001 in Bhuj Gujarat that left many parts of the state flattened. But it goes to the resilience of the Gujarati community that the state was up on its feet again in about 6 months’ time. Comparing this tragedy with that of the super cyclone of 1999 in Orissa, the masses of that unfortunate state were still clad in gunny bags not due to lack of any resources or material help but due to sheer apathy and inertia on the part of the state administration which didn’t even move thousands of tons of material help provided by UNHCR. The same was lying rotting at numerous ports of Pardip, Balasore, Puri, and Ganjam etc. So why act helplessly or resign to our fate when in fact, we are able to tackle inequality, end repression, prevent war or deal with their consequences with our unqualified resolve?
We can also be better towards each other, if only we shake off indifference or rather overcome differences real and imagined as we have done in the past. If the covid-19 pandemic or climate changes as also the ongoing Hamas-Israeli have taught us anything, it is that despite our uncertain times the only certainty is our intertwined destiny on this planet. Above all, life is a personal struggle and a shared journey. Life is meaningless without a meaningful struggle, especially one waged with empathy and passion in the pursuit of happiness. Last year of 2023 was a year of disruptions, repressions, stagnation, and inflation and so on. But as we embark on a new year, it is worth remembering that hatred and violence begets the same qualities albeit with much more renewed vengeance and ferocity resulting into a chain reaction of uncertainties. It is these uncertainties that have the potential to mar the upward movement of humans to their cherished goals of shared co-existence.
While the most cherished and valuable assets in life do not come with a price tag—love, friendship, family and community are those intangibles that have their tangibility realized only when they are gone literally and figuratively. As Turkish poet ‘Nazim Hikmet’ put it all too eloquently—
“The most beautiful sea hasn’t been crossed yet. The most beautiful child hasn’t grown up yet. Our most beautiful days we haven’t seen yet. And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you, I haven’t said yet.”
Let us be one with the words of this great Turkish poet and remove the uncertainties from the firmament of our lives by adhering to what I have written above and usher in the New Year 2024 with all the gusto and praise it deserves.
