Another year has just dawned upon us, and like in the past, we all celebrated the arrival of January 1, as though the world would be a better place at the strike of midnight. Ho hum, before you label my writing as a bunch of clichés put together, let me just clarify that I’m not going to rant about how unnecessary all this hype is or how terrible we are at keeping resolutions (I did that in this column exactly a year ago).
This time, while watching all the revelries around me, a strange thought popped up in my mind. The drunk uncles of my housing society were busy talking (drunk) philosophy, politics and about 2019 being the year in which a lot of things around us will change. It struck me that to us, in this current world scenario, the idea of ‘New Year’ is more of a case of the Saviour-Syndrome.
Sure, I made that term up, but bear with me here. What if the New Year IS supposed to make the world a better place (much to the glee of those drunk uncles)? ‘It’s New Year, start your life with a clean slate’, ‘Your diet will bear fruit in the New Year’ or even ‘The New Year will sort you out’. Thus, if ‘New Year’ was a person, he would probably be a Super-Hero. Enter 2019-Man, the Super-Shaktiman who’s out to make YOUR existence top notch!
Here’s a checklist for the next 365 days for our very own 2019-Man:
1) Our country is on a mission to make the game ‘statue’ we played in childhood, the official national time pass. 2019-Man must introduce a new game to us to pass time with. Let’s not start on Name Place Animal Thing…going by all the renaming, we got the NAME part of it figured out.
2) To make sure that the dual-boost superpower, ‘Common Sense and Civic Sense’ is instilled amongst people as soon as possible. That is the need of the hour because there is this super villain, who is draining Common Sense and Civic Sense out of people. 2019-Man must restore this, for everyone’s sake! Also, he should restore clean surroundings. And while he’s at it, make people, who spit paan on roads and possibly any surfaces, disappear.
3) Promises have been made, promises have been broken! How many times have we heard that a particular bridge, flyover or metro line is going to be thrown open to public on a said date? And how many times have we seen that promise being thrown into a public dustbin? Not anymore! 2019-Man will save the day.
4) The 2019-Man will make sure the flora and fauna around us is preserved and protected. Even if it means banishing people who own multiple cars to oblivion, it’ll have to be done by our man! Save the tiger, yes please. Save the water bodies, definitely. Save us from all pollution caused by our own urban lifestyles, for sure!
This is not the comprehensive list of issues the 2019-Man has to sort out. But, these issues are definitely at the top of my mind (if I was Alfred to his Batman). As for the rest of us, we will keep our fingers crossed and hope that some day this super entity will rise and make the forthcoming year totally worth that silly party we had on December 31st. Till then, have a good one anyway!
(The writer is a comic creator, illustrator and animator)
