Hello, New Year

"I never think of the future.

It comes soon enough."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

It is not a simple routine Hello, this time around.

The current New year 2011, fairly bristles with special features.

As the New Year dawns, we enter into the second decade of the twenty-first century.

It brings in its wake, a new spiritual awakening. In May this year, Buddhists all over the world, will celebrate the 2600th anniversary of the Supreme Enlightenment of Ascetic Siddhartha. This occasion will touch multitudes of non-Buddhists as well.

The New Year, ushered in by the first calendar month January, unifies mankind. Various nations, races and communities are likely to have New Year celebrations specific to them - just as we have ours in April. But, at mid-night on the 31st of December and at the dawn of the first of January, the whole human community, jointly welcomes the New Year.

Singing, dancing and general merry making are considered the proper ingredients and the right rituals of these common New Year celebrations.

When the ancient Romans named the first month of the calendar after their God Janus, they may have had various other things in mind. Janus is a two-faced God. He can, at once, see the past and look into the future. The Roman calendar-makers were perhaps conveying a telling message to mankind. "When you begin a New Year consider the past carefully. It is only then that you should plan for the future."

Most moderns celebrating New Year on the first of January, are quite likely to miss this Janus - point.

Today's media, both print and electronic, have a way of looking back at the year we have passed through.

They highlight note-worthy events and focus on persons or developments that had the greatest impact on the world in general or on their country specifically in the past year. Such hindsights may stir curiosity. But, whether the lessons implicit in this kind of analysis of the past, makes a reasonable difference to the generality of people, is yet another matter all together.

Last year, history filled the world with a vast store of memorable happenings, that were both negative and positive in terms of their effect on humanity.

Some monstrous natural disasters, mercilessly decimated a vast swath of population, in several countries. In Haiti 230,000 lives were claimed by a crushing earthquake. Flood-waters submerged a massive segment of land in Pakistan, engulfing millions in privation.

In Sri Lanka "un-natural" floods, sank the happiness of a multiplicity of families, making it an urgent necessity for the State to extend them a helping hand.

But, joy too was phenomenally present.

The most exhilarating episode of human news of 2010, came from the depths of the earth. Thirty-three miners trapped for 70 days, 2,300 feet below the surface of the earth, in La Serena in Chile, were rescued in a miraculous -mission, enabling millions of families around the world to savour a human joy, vicariously through live TV.

In Sri Lanka too, in 2010, many households shared - once again through live TV - a supreme moment of national happiness and national pride. This moment majestically arrived in our history, when the first ship gracefully sailed into the Port of Hambantota, which was carved out of the land by the high indigenous skills of Sri Lankan engineers.

This was a region of the coast, that was hideously battered by the ocean, in its tsunami - ruthlessness. Five years later the then relentless ocean was tamed by Presidential decree into yielding us a placid harbour. The destructive ocean has been forced to pay us compensation, by enabling us to earn economic dividends.

When the second decade of the twenty-first century dawns, along with the New Year 2011, we possess a whole series of triumphs to display. We have comprehensively eradicated the blood-soaked terrorism, that thwarted our development for more than three decades. We are at last free of the strangle-hold of violence, that brought about a debilitating national helplessness. But, its tormenting aches and pains have not yet left us fully.

With all that, as a nation, we are full of hope about a 'Suba Anagathayak' (a glorious future).

In most instances, New Year is the time for pledges and determinations. During this season many determinations are made at individual level. In some cultures, rituals specific for them, accommodate these personal New Year wishes. In some cities in Spain, a popularly held view is that a wish or wishes you express, during the twelve-chimes of the clock, announcing the midnight of the 31st of December, will come true. But, the wishes that come true are equal to the number of grapes you eat and swallow during the time the clock takes to ring the 12 chimes. Therefore, the people have requested the clock-keeper to prolong the time taken to ring the twelve mid-night chimes, on the 31st of December, enabling them to eat a large number of grapes.

With or without that kind of help, it is good to have wishes.

What is still better is to see that they come true through your personal efforts. This way, what is more practical is to keep New Year pledges supported by unrelaxed determinations.

People in Sri Lanka, too make New Year pledges - both individually and collectively. But, what is nationally essential is see that they achieve reality.

Renewing the same wish or pledge each year, is not the real way to go about it.

But, the winning factor is working on your New Year's determination from now on, as Great Albert Einstein says "Future comes soon enough".