Human Punctuations

Photo credits: www.onwe.bioinnovate.co
Memory tag: New year celebration on 31st December.

Driving down from Guahati on 31st December, I wondered how tomorrow was going to be any different if my life was not calendared, Gregorian or otherwise? Lights and decorations used to usher in the festive spirit have been on semi permanent duty since October. They brighten the spirits; make the darkness tolerable as the daylight hours shorten with winter. They have even become nondenominational and secular. The same garlands of lights welcome Ganesh, Durga, Lakshmi and Rama at Deepavali; the infant Jesus at Christmas and the New Year. A touch of zing is added to bow out the old and welcome the New Year. Magnum sized advertisements entice one to make a mega celebration out of a human punctuation, the 31st of December! I gleefully took part in one such celebration and hugely enjoyed myself. It felt good to be part of the celebrations! Taking stock next morning, I realized the past 365 days had given me enough reason to celebrate. But the 1st of January also created that vital pause to tell me, there was so much more to achieve. That is probably why we have festivals, calendars, human punctuations if will call them that, before we be begin a new sentence, a new paragraph or a new chapter.

Even the very heavens seem to be marking time for us with their changing frescos of constellations. A line I read long ago has become a favorite. It is said man became mankind when he looked up at the stars and wondered! So I learnt, the sun was now in the ascending phase, entering the Capricorn constellation. The increasing photoperiod gently nudging out winter darkness. The very stars seem to be dividing time into manageable data bytes. Time punctuation was not just a human game. Therefore calendars and festivals seem to tell eternity time must have a stop. So on January 1, we have entered into. a new decade, a new year. The century began with a leap year in both the Julian and Gregorian.

To punctuate is to breathe, is to put in brakes, is to add meaning to a string of alphabets that could run on without meaning. So I begin this new gift of 365 days, with thanksgiving for a fresh lease of life and opportunity. Did you realize it comes with a free gift, a trip around a star called the sun? We are already ten days into this journey by the time you read this over our Sunday coffee and the decade ten days old too. Are we better or worse for it? One day at a time - would probably be the best way to go.