New Calendar

hmm Jan 1st ... 2006 !!
same dates in a new calendar....
ushered in with same revelry as 2005 was...
wishes made... resolutions silently intoned
hopes renewed....
thank god there are these cycles.. these change of calendars..
giving us belief that things would be different in this new period
this new tranche of 365 days...
atleast the day one we wake up with hopes...
I wish the governments all around the world also make some new resolutions to govern better.
hope the terrorists did some 12th hour introspections of their causes and their methods...
hope mother nature would be kind to the living ...
HOPE... the word that rings hollow sometimes... but still we hope against all the odds...
I guess 364 days hence we shall renew these hopes in a new calendar...
6 billion hopes should have some meaning in the larger scheme of things in this universe and its master

Year after

Have been watching the news for last few days and news channels have been doing follow ups on the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in my living memory. It has been a year since tsunami devastated the Asian shores. I can still remember how it was a Sunday brunch where people who didn't know the gravity of it all, including me, were discussing as to how there were some tremors and reported earthquakes in bangalore and some similar news from chennai. After learning the depth of tragedy, we realized how mind numbing news it was we all scrapped the plans of new year celebration then.

this year too there doesn't seem to be any respite from the tragedies. Hurricanes, cyclones and earthquakes seem to be just following up in line after tsunami. Its Xmas day today and air hangs heavy all around me. Here in Dhaka every celebration of new year will happen under heavy apprehensions of mishaps that are lurking around the corner all the time and these are not just nature's wrath but man's own devices.

Buzzwords of the year have been freedom and I guess it has been made just all the more elusive this year and for years to come...Hope shall be the word for the years to come. Hoping and living....