Saturday, December 11, 2010

December

We are finally cruising through December. It's a month you wish, at least I wish, never ended.

Once December ends, the year ends. Once the year ends, yet another chunk of your life gets junked into a transparent wastebin that bears the label 'Past' and whose lid shuts permanently once the clock strikes 12 on the night of December 31.

Thereafter, you can only look into the bin but not retrieve any of its contents even if you badly wish to. Past, after all, is past. What has been done cannot be undone; and what has not been done cannot be done anymore. The year has ended, after all.

The true measure of your success and happiness lies in how badly you want to dig into the bin. If you proudly lift the bin and place it on the mantelpiece like a trophy, it means you've had a good year. But if you happen to be wrestling with its lid in order to retrieve a junked piece of paper, in spite of knowing that the lid is shut for good, it means you have screwed up and badly want to make amends.

Then there are vagabonds like me, who don't bother meddling with the bin. We merely hide the label 'Past' by sticking over it a rectangular piece of paper that reads 'Nostalgia.'

The day you persuade your Past into becoming Nostalgia, you begin to extract the meaning of your life. Or so I think. But why do such profound thoughts occur only in December?

6 comments:

Deepika Munot said...

Just out of curiosity - is the bin any different on any other day?!?! It is still the past that you have labelled 'Nostalgia'! It is still irretrievable! So what's different?!?

J said...

Or does it only occur in December??? Oh well, to each his/her own...

Sepiamniac said...

Tell me the answer when you find it, buddy.

Best wishes for a great 2011...

Anonymous said...

past is what made us,even if it was by way of errors.past is smug n secure in its own way.one always misses it.Though,we all find past perfect and present tense,most ironically,your posts sends me there most number of times.

Sudeep Chowdhuri said...

Dear BG,
Good one.

To me, the December ‘bin’ is indeed different from the ‘bin’ that is there on ‘any other day’.

When I look back at any longish period, say a year, there is no doubt that the sadness exceeds the happiness and lost victories triumph over the real ones.

What keeps me going is what all humans thrive on (except perhaps Guru Dutt) - the hope that next year will be better than the last – that next year, I will do what I could not last year, or maybe the year(s) before that. This is the spirit of the New Year Resolution. This is what allows me to look back into the snake pit that is the year (almost) gone, pick out the nice parts, smile, and say, “it wasn’t too bad after all”.

Which, is the same reason why I go through the pain and deprivation of bringing up my son with a smile – that he will tread where I could not. That, he is the year, full of hope, coming up, while I am the year (almost) gone.

Here’s to a happier new year for all of us.

Anubhuti said...

Mr Ghosh, I think your fixation with Dec is a bit like mine with August.
Another coincidence ?