December 29, 2007

Beep! Beep! Beep! The sound of my electronic clock woke me up. I looked towards the clock to see the special date. “Jan-01-2008” it said. “So this is the special day! New year, new beginning and everything would be different,” I said to myself. I quickly took a shower and wore ironed clothes for a change.

“Happy New Year!” I wished to my mom as soon as I saw her.

“What? Oh it’s New Year! I did not notice actually. Anyways when are you going to clean up your room? It is a total mess!” my mom said and I wished she would give me a break sometimes from her lectures — at least on New Year’s day.

“Oh mom! I would definitely do it today.”

“That is what you say every time but you never do it. Anyways you need to go to the market to get some groceries.”

“Can I at least have some breakfast before I go to the market?”

“No I need them now. You can have it when you come back. You already have woken up so late,” my mom was quite angry.

And I reluctantly took the money from her and left the house. Actually I had hoped for a better start to the new year with all my expectations and exuberance that I associated with it.

Outside, riding my mountain bike, it seemed a usual sunny day as ever. Nothing had changed. “Why do I expect a lot from the new year every time when nothing is going to change in my life?” I asked myself. But I had no answer to that.

“May be I can try to make a difference on my own by doing things differently or trying new things.” Thoughts were rushing to my mind. “May be a New Year resolution of preparing for my exams on time, getting more organised, managing my time and life properly, obeying my parents and helping those around me might do the trick for me. After all, things cannot change on their own. I would have to change them. Alright! I will do just that. When? Today? No I will start from tomorrow.”

I made that tentative decision at the end of my thought process and started pedalling my bicycle faster. As I turned left from the end of my street onto the main road, I, as usual, did not bother to look right and came almost in the middle of the road. I did not see the car coming from behind me as it hit me. I was stumbling onto the ground when I was hit by the car coming from the opposite direction. Extreme pain shot through my body and blood oozed out of my head as I fell backwards. The world around me was turning darker. My last thoughts were what I had read somewhere — “accidents happen to people who think they cannot happen to them”. After that I fell into unconsciousness.

Beep! Beep! Beep! I woke up on the sound of the alarm clock and quickly checked my body (for any bleeding and broken bones) and my surroundings. Everything was just fine with me on my bed. “So it was a dream,” I said to myself and breathed a sigh of relief. I quickly reached for the glass on my bedside table and drank some water to ease my tensed nerves.

“Bhai! Can you help me in doing my homework?” my younger brother said coming into my room.

“I would have loved to but I have got a test tomorrow myself!” I lied to him.

But on second thought I said, “Alright! Let me clean my room first and then I will help you.”

Actually I thought it won’t hurt much to carry out little changes in me and my life to make a difference in my life; and the best time to that was that very moment!

Step by step I would do things to make life better for myself and those around me. And by the time the new year starts, I would be a better person than before. Things would look good and better on the New Year’s day this way, for sure. That is what I believe is the real way of having some celebration rather than celebration for the sake of celebration.