To 2016 with Hope

                                                To 2016 with Hope

We are close to ringing out 2015 and ringing in 2016. This is the last week of 2015 and with a fond hope that no earthshaking happening is likely to be in the next three or four days, it is a reasonably good time to make an assessment of the year gone by. Has this year been one of joy and satisfaction, one of peace and cheer or one of gloom and disappointment, one of disquiet and depression? We are familiar with the saying that for a pessimist the glass always looks half empty and for the optimist the glass is forever half full. Many of us follow the middle path neither sanguine nor dispirited, oscillating between periods of hope and despair, light and darkness, faith and distrust, self- confidence and self-doubt. The protagonist in the documentary I am Twenty says: “I would say that our achievement is that we have a hopeful tomorrow. Our failure is that our today is very precarious.” This is not a unique phenomenon for 2015 but this is life’s little irony that shows life to be the co-existence of contraries.  We have time to be glad and time to be sad, time to soar high and time to sink low and this is an endless cycle repeated year after year. Personally and professionally speaking I have nothing to write home about. No momentous event can happen to a septuagenarian ( and that too if one follows our Prime Minister who has drawn the Lakshman Rekha at 75 for all aspiring men and women) that could be written on the back of a postage stamp . But since one is still alive, alert, has an ear to the ground and overarching all these has no axe to grind, it is possible to look back without rancor and malice, animus and disappointment and prepare to meet 2016 that cannot avoid partly  being a carryover from 2015. Hence how good a year 2015 has been to carry over to the next year?

While it may seem dismal to list out how bad 2015 has been, it will be naïve to ignore the catastrophes so that we prioritize clearing the debris and rebuilding in 2016.  Firstly 2015 has been a year of aviation disasters involving three major air crashes accounting for nearly 500 deaths. Apart from the technical failures, the hand of man in these disasters portends a tragic and terrifying omen.   The year also witnessed earthquakes of magnitude between 7 and eight in Nepal, Afghanistan and Chile (though here despite 8.3 magnitude the casualty was limited to 14) with death toll around 10000. Landslides China, in Myanmar mines, in Malaysia were the major global disasters while rain havoc in Tamilnadu in India had affected 18lakhs of people inundating residential areas and rendering loss of life and property of an unimaginable magnitude. Again the hand of Man in these disasters has been distinct and we can ignore this only at our peril.

The COP ( Paris Conference) on climate change for all the headlines it made ended with the same platitude of collective responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions though the agreement will be effective if only55 countries which produce 55%  green house gas emissions ratify the agreement. Kumi Naidoo of GreenPeace International sums it up: “ the deal won’t alone dig us out of the hole we are in, but it makes the sides less steep”. The cap on emissions is still loose that could see a rise in temperature by 2.7 to 3 degrees leading to catastrophic and irreversible floods, rains, droughts and heatwaves in the future. Will we learn the lessons of 2015 and rebuild a new secure world that is safe for us and for the future generations?

The threat of IS is almost a foreboding of an imminent apocalypse. The attack of IS and the counter attacks after the Paris massacre does not bode well for the world. The West plans to come together to fight the cruelty and atrocities unleashed by IS on innocent people and the possibility of this fight escalating to World War III is a grim prospect for all nations and democracies. Can 2016 usher in a peaceful world?

Back home, seven months into governance at the beginning of 2015, the Modi Government had to contend with angry voices of artists and intellectuals against growing incidents of intolerance that have  wracked the country for the best part of the year. The cultural battles on what to wear, what to eat, what to learn, what to read, whom to love and whom not to love  have gone full blast . Will 2016 inject sanity and liberality to clogged and closed minds that are engendered by cultural atavism?   This year saw a few older icons come perilously close to a fall while new icons have been raised for reasons other than iconic. The debates on issues of tolerance and liberty have been more of a slanging match than any substantial effort at understanding them. Loud and censorial, often descending down to attacks on personalities, the punches on the Television and the attacks and counter attacks on the twitter have touched an all time low. The election speeches were highly provocative and the arrogance of a few of our political netas have reached abysmal depths. Will 2016 see more civilized debates and less noise from the anchors’ microphones and their strict adherence to TV neutrality? Will the New Year see our leaders and political spokespersons  raising the political discourse to more informed and mature levels rather than following the tu tu, mein mein route? Will people abstain from shooting off their mouths and talk with discretion, courtesy and politeness? Will 2016 see an end to acrimony and bitterness between rival political parties to make way for effective governance?

The positives are to be seen in the rise of new voices demanding redressal of violence,  in the humungous  effort at containing environmental pollution, PM’s constant efforts to reach out to world leaders, sharing his  “personal chemistry” with them- the outcome of which in terms of big foreign investments and resolution of  India’s border disputes with neighbouring countries  is awaited with eagerness and anticipation. The various measures taken by the government for financial growth and development have to be seen in meeting the common man’s necessities and aspirations. Energy, education and environment are awaiting urgent reforms to kick start development. Will 2016 see a take- off from what had hitherto sustained the nation or will it see a jettisoning of everything of the last seventy years and returning to the years of the ancient epic times?

In the final analysis 2015 has witnessed the promise of a revival of an ancient past and a renewal of a new dawn- much the same  on the lines of Robert Frost:

The future is lovely, bright and hidden

We have many promises to keep

And twelve months to go before

Ringing out 2016 and ringing in 2017