New Year across ages

The dawn of a new year brings to mind the jubilant scenes of my college and university days in the 1970s. The excitement and fun that New Year's Eve generated in our young hearts made it truly remarkable and memorable.

People were out and about, unconcerned about the chilly weather, wrapped up in sweaters and shawls, and flocking to stores to buy clothes, bouquets of flowers, fruits, sweets, and gifts for the joyous, festive occasion. The greeting card shops dotted along our city's pavement, roads, and streets were the festive focal points. We, like many people in large numbers, would gather curiously at these shops and get busy picking up the greeting cards with a variety of fascinating New Year's messages for our friends.

Hotels and restaurants were brimming with people like us, talking and laughing aloud over snacks and tea. What still stays fresh in the mind is the warmth, the love, and the camaraderie in the air; laughter, chirpy, and vivacious conversations filled the air with an energy that we relished. All of our conversations would invariably revolve around one topic: the New Year. The whole atmosphere was colourful and pleasant.

When the night of the last day of the year was fading out and a fresh new year was being delivered out of time's womb, there would erupt outside our houses an incredible explosion of excitement. The clock in the house rang twelve times. All of a sudden, we would be woken up by a stream of ecstatic shrieks of "happy new year" from revellers in our streets.

Crackers were fired in the streets, and rockets were sent shooting up, illuminating the dark sky and shattering the quiet of the wintry night. We sprang up from our beds and opened our drowsy eyes to find ourselves in a freshly born New Year. We too would cry out ecstatically and greet one another in the family, sharing the joy of the arrival of the New Year. When we stirred out in the morning, we would find everywhere people swaying and gambolling, exchanging greetings, bouquets, flowers, fruits, and sweets. We would also join the jubilant folks in the celebration.

The young and jubilant would keep clapping their hands and dancing. We would run to the houses of our friends and relatives and inundate them with greeting cards, flowers, bouquets, and fruits. Guests would come to our homes to share in the joy of the new year. Cakes, cookies, and sweets were enjoyed by the guests and members of the family.

The time was marked by smiles, laughs, and cheers, setting aside despair, disappointments, pains, and sorrows. Only new hopes, glowing ambitions, soaring aspirations, and overflowing happiness were what our hearts would throb with.

The new year was like a colourful rainbow to us. With luminous aspirations and radiant hopes, we would welcome the New Year with open arms and cry out in childish delight, "HAPPY NEW YEAR," savouring its ineffable magic. Greeting cards are no longer widely used. New Year's greetings are conveyed through emojis on smartphones.