LOOKING AHEAD 2025: To mark an end is to start afresh

It’s the time to bid goodbye to another year. One hears the usual lamentations of a year so quickly gone by. Except for the Covid years that somewhat distorted our sense of it, time is back to being in a tearing hurry. Or at least that’s the perception. There are of course whole variations on time: is it a continuum of the past, present and future, or in the Faulknerian sense, a simultaneity? But coming back to the impending year, one wonders what the change of a calendar really means to human life.

Mark Twain once said, “New Year is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.” While his words carry a humourous edge, they also underline the quirky nature of the New Year: a blend of celebration and reflection, frivolity and earnest intention. Intentions are always earnest.

Anais Nin went one step further: “I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticising, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.” And then Mary Shelley had a perfect counter-foil: “The beginning is always today.”

Let’s first look at the reflective part. We often wonder if the past year has been good or fruitful, disappointing or wasted. The character Srinivas in RK Narayan’s novel ‘Mr Sampath: The Printer of Malgudi’, for instance, always finds New Year’s Day depressing. The old man feels that all around him, there are “signs that a vast inundation was moving onward, carrying the individual before it, and before knowing where one was, one would find oneself senile or in the grave, with so little understood or realised”. Towards the end of the novel though, there is restoration of normalcy, a pattern of renewal and hope that is more evident in Narayan’s famous work, ‘Swami and Friends’.

Then there are those who eschew the limits of time. As TS Eliot wrote in his poem ‘Little Gidding’...

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s

language/And next year’s words await

another voice./And to make an end is

to make a beginning.”

Twain also had a take on the innate human nature to resist change — “New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week, you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

Yet, for centuries, literature has echoed the sentiment of new beginnings, serving as both a reflection of human experiences and the transformative power of renewal, offering insights that resonate across generations and cultures. Boris Pasternak captures it aptly in ‘Dr Zhivago’: “If you want to know, life is the principle of self-renewal, it is constantly renewing and remaking and changing and transfiguring itself, it is infinitely beyond your or my obtuse theories about it.”

Each year offers a universal rhythm, marking time in a way that encourages closure and rebirth. The Roman god Janus, for whom January is named, epitomises this duality. With one face looking to the past and the other to the future, Janus reminds us of the cyclical nature of time and the inherent opportunities for growth and reinvention.

Contemporary literature continues to explore the theme of new beginnings in ways that resonate with modern audiences. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Americanah’, the protagonist Ifemelu navigates the complexities of immigration, identity and belonging, ultimately finding a sense of self and purpose. Similarly, Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ exemplifies the liberating power of leaving behind the familiar to seek personal fulfilment and new horizons.

The relationship between literature and new beginnings is not limited to the stories themselves, but extends to the act of reading and writing. For readers, books often mark pivotal moments in life, offering solace, perspective, or the courage to start anew. Writers, too, embrace the New Year as a time to embark on creative projects, their blank pages echoing the blank canvas of January.

As we welcome another year, literature serves as a reminder of the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit. Stories of transformation, redemption and perseverance encourage us to face challenges with hope and determination. In a world often characterised by rapid change and uncertainty, these narratives provide an anchor, affirming that new beginnings are not only possible, but are essential to growth.

As Thomas Merton, an American monk and writer, says, “There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet, the same instinct tells us that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest, most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born again is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves.”

New Year is much more than a temporal marker; it is a cultural and personal symbol of renewal. Through the lens of literature, we see how deeply ingrained this theme is in the human psyche. Whether through the journeys of fictional characters, the wisdom of poets, or our own narratives as readers and writers, the celebration of new beginnings continues to inspire and empower.

As we turn the page on another year, we are reminded that the stories we choose to tell — and live — are ours to shape.

— The writer is a contributor based in Bengaluru