To New & Auspicious Beginnings - Happy New Year

My piece for K2, KUENSEL Magazine,  Last Page, 29th December, 2012.

I like chatting with cab drivers while I’m commuting around town. They have the most interesting stories to share. This particular cabbie told me that he had heard about a global blackout starting December 21^st that would last for three days. We were just 2 days away from “doomsday”!

It surprised me how a prediction from the Mayan civilization from South America was now the topic of conversation, literally half a world away, in a cab in Thimphu. I proceeded to tell my cabbie about the Mayan Long Count calendar and how it ends abruptly, according to modern calculations, on December 21^st, 2012. People are speculating the end of the world, I informed him; the look on his face was priceless.

Then I told him no such thing would happen! The end of the Mayan Long Count calendar only means the calendar will now go back right to the beginning, just as January 1^st comes a day after December 31^st in the Gregorian calendar. He nodded back in comprehension, and smiled a sigh of relief.

Just to humour him I asked him what he’d do the following day, December 20^th, if the world really was ending on December 21^st. He said, with a huge smile, that he’d spend the day with family and friends celebrating close bonds and toasting to life.

In my case, I’d be contemplating on something else entirely; December 21^st would be the start of a new phase in my life – that of a Civil Servant. I graduated from Medical College this year and sat for the RCSC exams and qualified. The RCSC had called us for placement selection on December 21^st, for our appointment on New Year’s Day, 2013. Thus, the upcoming New Year has special significance for me.

The coming of a New Year is a time of reflection on the 12 months past – the triumphs and tribulations; good deeds done as well as mistakes made; the adulation as well as criticism. It is a time to be grateful about a good year gone and to invigorate ourselves with hope and promise for a better year ahead.

This past year has been rather eventful for me – I graduated from Medical College; left the city I called home for more than half a decade; returned home and reconnected with family and friends; met the love of my life and got engaged.

The few days in between the end of one year and the beginning of the next offers us a chance to contemplate on the things we value in life and those that define us – family and friends, relationships, near and dear ones, career, dreams, goals, memories, future plans etc. 

It’s amazing how a change in date and the dawn of a new day brings forth the promise of a whole new beginning. We close one chapter of our lives and stand on the threshold of another new one.

Only this time around, I’m standing on the threshold of not only a brand New Year, but also a brand new phase in my life – I’m starting out on my career, I’m settling down with my better half, I’m building my own home, and I’m embarking on a lifetime of devoted service to the Tsa-Wa-Sum.

My cabbie plans to spend New Year picnicking with his family and friends, all of them toasting to life. Me, I’ll be with my fiancé, my parents, family and friends, toasting to new and auspicious beginnings.