Welcome to 2009

Do you take new year resolution? What resolution do you plan to take up this year? Is it 'I will eat less this year', 'I will reduce weight', 'I will talk less', 'I will study hard' or something else. Are you wondering why I am asking about your new year resolution this year; maybe this write-up will help you in making a decision.

In India every year floods occur, riots take place, blasts happen. Was 2008 different from this and the answer is NO. This year Bihar and Orissa were hit by floods badly. Many people died. Rail and road transport were disrupted. Relief camps setup, donations given for the flood victims. There is a saying precaution is better than cure. So why not find a solution for the flood problem? Is it just the responsibility of government to find a solution? As a citizen of India don't we have some duties towards our country?

What about the riots that happen on the name of religion or region? Alteast floods are because of nature but communal violence is created by humans. A fight on the name of different religion or region is really bad. Be it the violence against Biharis at Maharastra started the MNS Chief, Raj Thackeray. Or a communal violence at Orissa between Hindu and Christian community after the death of Hindu leader, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Did a person before getting born select the place or religion of his/her birth? Riots don't do anything good but just spread hatred between people. Also think about those innocent people who lose their life in this violence with no reason. Let's stop fighting with a reason as to where one comes from or which caste s/he belongs. Stop hating someone because you don't like his/her culture. Try learning his/her culture and you will feel that his/her culture is as good as yours. If your food doesn't have spice in it; it wont taste good. Meet people who are from different culture or region and see how interesting your life becomes because of this new person. Look at Bollywood the 3 actors whom most Indians love are muslims – Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan.

This year bomb blasts at various places in India was also common. Killing innocent people and children. Has mankind become so immoral? After Mumbai blasts on 26/11 everyone said enough is enough. Do people really mean these words? Have the people of India got united? Is an Indian not just ready to make donations for blast victims but also fight against it? For how long do we Indians plan to survive under terror? Remember the saying united we stand, divided we fall. So lets stand united against terror and let it go away far from us. Don't let the sacrifices of Our Indian soldiers go waste. Contribute in the smallest way possible. You don't always need to be on the battle ground to fight.

If you are a technical person, think on how to improve India technically so that in future such cases don't happen. If you are a doctor, treat every patient equally. If you are a lawyer, spread the basic laws related to humanity among common people. If you are a media person, don't hype things; just show the news and let people ponder upon it. Make sure whatever you do, you are not harming humanity. You know the solution so this is a humble request SAVE HUMANITY.

On a lighter note, the sports year for India was really good. Inspite of bomb blasts at Jaipur, IPL was a successful event. In cricket legends like spinner Anil Kumble and ex-captain and batsman Sourav bid adieu to international cricket to let the young guns of cricketers take charge on the sports. India won against Australia, England in the test series. Apart from cricket India also showed its skills in other sports by winning medals in Olympics 2008. Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal for Shooting. Vijender Singh won a Bronze medal in Boxing. Sushil Kumar again won a bronze medal for wrestling. So this year it was good to see new sports person emerging in India.

As such overall for me 2008 was a year of more sad things happening in the country than the good ones. I hope that in year 2009 good things happen more. Atleast we can stop fighting with each other on a reason of culture and place which came to us by birth. What we selected was our profession, the friends we made, the way we want to lead our life. But this also doesn’t give the right to fight with someone. So this year I take a resolution to help and save humanity. Take a resolution to fight against terror in the smallest possible way.

This message is for everyone: "Make India to be remembered as a place where a Catholic lady asks a Sikh to be the Prime Minister of the nation who is sworn by a Muslim President."

At the end, be human which means be good at heart, help others, respect others. Don't fight because it doesn't give any solutions but just create more problems. Hope you will bring a change in the year 2009.