Buzz Writing

Time flies. A year has flown right by and here I am, still wondering when to start on the resolutions made at the beginning of last year. Every new year brings excitement for the next year and making resolutions is a ritual many will make —but then, as a friend of mine said — like promises, resolutions are made to be broken.

My friends think I have lost all forms of originality because every time they ask what my new year resolution will be, I list the same things I had said the year before. You can make resolutions for numerous reasons (in celebration of the new year or just for sheer indulgence) but no matter how plausible your resolution, you could, like me, end up gaining nothing by the end of the year. I envy those who make resolutions and actually accomplish them. But then these folks probably find themselves odd in a throng of people who end up breaking their resolutions.

Well, I am one of that sort. Years back I made a solid resolution to lose weight and achieve a model size — one of the most difficult that one can set for themselves and I think it is a task that only the most unearthly creatures can accomplish. Determined not to fall through, I made a huge poster and wrote in large letters: “you have to lose weight by the end of this year and look like Brooke Shields (my all time favourite) and if you don’t you will end up looking like Tun Tun.” Every time my friends or family entered my room, they were somehow so overwhelmed by the magnanimity of the poster that they considered losing weight themselves. At the beginning of the month of the year I would buoy myself up, “abhi to buhut din hein to the end of the year; I will make it by then.” However, come the end of the year and there I was: not an inch less.

It’s easy to come up with the most original of resolutions but it’s a different story when it comes to sticking to them — simply because if you haven’t accomplished the previous ones you can’t start on the new ones. Besides, the lazy composure that I breathe in, I cannot expect my resolutions to come to fruition — without my getting up and doing something about it. And since that is a Herculean task, I’d rather recycle the same list year after year and be done with it. I don’t mind that they go unfulfilled because I know that unless they are done, the others cannot be taken up.

There are many who will soon be gearing up to make very unpredictable resolutions, only to find they were too good to be true. “This year I will go to the US for studies come what may,” vowed a friend. As fall semester begins in September, the 9/11 attacks shattered his dreams of conquering the wild west. In retrospect, his list of resolutions will at least serve him with fond memories of running around for visas and other formalities he needed to complete to enter the States. Such unpredictable resolutions however, work out well for me, without the effort that my poor friend made, as my resolution would not be put to task in any case.

One year in order to pump freshness in my banal list of resolutions, I decided to take up something that would not only be far fetched but also impressive to the ‘ears of the beholder’. Two years ago I decided to write a book and vowed to finish it by the end of the year. The thought wasn’t too bad and everyone I told was quite impressed that I had come up with such a lofty idea. Inevitably, every time we met, my friends began asking how the book was coming along and I would always respond with a casual, “as soon as I have finished my synopsis, writing the book will not take time.” Luckily nobody asked to see the synopsis. I was always met with great admiration: “It is truly commendable that you can write a book,” people would say. “How many of us can do that,” sighed an acquaintance while I basked in glory. The problem came when the last week of December arrived, and I hadn’t even decided what topic I wanted to write on, let alone have a synopsis.

I know I will not be killed for failing to live up to my resoution, just as all those legislators and law makers world over are not killed for making and passing such unfair resolutions. (Please note how I’ve made a connection between a new year’s resolution and a legislatory resolution!) No one goes after those politicians and leaders when they make big speeches about mending people’s problems and then forgetting all about it once in power so why should I be any different? Unfortunately, the fallacious creatures that we are, breaking resolutions may just pass off as another national trait. At least you have some agenda that you are not doing anything about.

Have I learnt anything from the past? Well, I am all set to make more resolutions this new year’s eve and I know somewhere behind me, Mirza Ghalib is standing over me, watching as I compile my list, sighing with his wise words: Dil ke behlaane ko Ghalib ye khiyaal acha hai.