New Year and Hopes

The New Year means 'Hope,' as the name itself suggests. We start thinking about what we have done this year, whether this year was good for us or not, the goals we have set up for this year did we achieve them or not - everyone have different experiences. The parents whose kids graduated this year sending them to the college where their kids want to go really became a hard thing. Especially with the economy of the world having problems and so many people who lost their jobs and if their kids graduated last year or this year had to face so many problems to send them to the college.

Some who cannot get the student loans or couldn't afford to pay the interests of the loans as they do not have stable jobs their children had to stay back and took a part time or full time job to save the money and those kids who worked last year were able to go to college this year. This year some families have to do the same thing if they are facing economic problems. And if the children miss one year college it is not the end of the world and it works out for some one year later and for others few years later but they will get to their goals. Every year as we move on with the life we learn different lessons. The 'Hope,' in any situation makes people move on.

People who have chronic illnesses -some of them have very hard life as every day is a big struggle for them. Especially who cannot eat and have continuous excruciating pain, who are young and have small kids it is very hard for them to try to live as normal as possible if not for themselves but for the sake of the family whom they want to see happy and normal like other kids. They cannot bear to see their kids not having the normal and happy childhood and so they push themselves to make everyone's life happy.

They have to depend on pain medication, feeding tubes to get nutrition, some patients may need to have the bags which collects the urine who have bladder or kidney problems, asthma patients need to have the inhalers with them all the time and they have to be careful with the diet all the time; the patients who go through dialysis every day it is like going through hell for them, diabetes patients have to be careful with the diet and take insulin for some people few times a day and some throughout the day which is not a very easy life but it is their life and they have to accept thinking positive and not giving up. These patients who end up as chronic patients at very young age have to make their lives bearable taking care of themselves and also the family members lives bearable, as normal as possible and everyone learn each day from their day to day different lives. Naturally all the chronic patients hope for the better New Year, less suffering, more relief and peace in their lives.

The terminal illness patients whose family members' struggle every minute with their loved ones suffering they wish that both the suffering of the patients should reduce and as long as they live they should spend their time as happily as possible. Of course knowing that one of the loved members of the family is not going to be among themselves is a very hard to digest fact but hiding their feelings they all try to make the patient's life as comfortable as possible. And there must be so many families who have lost one of the members of the family putting up a brave fight with the illness. It's hard not to have them in the celebration of the New Year and makes them sad too. But for all those families only the time heals the wounds saying goes to each and every one of them and grieving for the lost member makes them slowly realize that the person has not gone anywhere because they think about them all the time. They are all alive in their memories and in their hearts as long as they live. I know this from my personal experience of losing my younger brother, poet uncle, close friends, my mentally retarded sister-in-law they are all in my heart and I feel their presence whenever I think about them or talk about them with my children. The New Year may bring peace to all the families who have lost their loved ones either to the illness, accidents, in the violence or in the wars etc.

The people who care for others, think about them, try to help them, hope that in the New Year the poor conditions of the people in different parts of the world will improve. The corrupt politicians who run the governments in most of the countries even though they have laws, wonderful constitution which promises equality for all the people without any discrimination still the conditions of the poor people do not improve. The awareness about the issues which are becoming hindrances in the development of the country or the people should be spread by the media which plays a very important role in our society. Unfortunately the media is giving more importance to the sensationalizing every single thing which does not help in the authenticity of the news, the incidents that take place, taking sides of the political groups etc. With the globalization the countries were supposed to become friendlier, expand their businesses, trade and commerce in different countries, arts and culture etc.

Along with the some good things happening because of globalization lot of western influence on the media can be seen in the developing countries. The sensationalism of the news was not there a decade ago in the developing countries but when I visited India after 9 years some of the things shocked me so much. Few months before some violent incidents took place in some districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh and the TV channels were competing to show the news as sensational as possible. When they were showing the violent incidents the people who were attacked by the violent people were bleeding, almost dying instead of helping them they just stood there and taped every single thing. The corrupt system in different parts of the world needs to stop and with the arrival of New Year the people who are conscious of the problems of the society definitely hope for the better year with the improvement in the living conditions of the people.

As the years pass we are all supposed to move forward leaving the things that become the hindrances in the development of the countries and also become big obstacle in removing the social evils such as racism, fundamentalism, selfish and narrow minded politicians want to use the sentiments by trying to divide the people in the name of the sects, same language dialects, places saying some places were underdeveloped because of living with all the people of the state together. The problem of untouchables on the basis of the lower caste system still continues in India, politicians use them for their selfish reasons as they are uneducated, ignorant, and poor by promising good life after the elections and once they win them never look back. The poor farmers in the monsoon season if they don't receive good monsoon or get floods which ruin the crops, the farmers who cannot feed their families and unable to pay the debts commit suicide. While all this is happening the selfish politicians will be fighting for the seats in the state government and the central government. Or try to divide the states instead of paying attention to the urgent problems create chaos throughout the country all just because of their thirst for the power.

The peace lovers throughout the world are looking forward with lot of HOPE that the wars will stop and the peaceful life of the people of those countries should return. Lot of destruction has caused both to the peoples' lives and their properties and living in the shelters with their families. Everyone who has seen the war and who think, 'enough is enough,' are all looking forward to the New Year hoping for the war to stop and they want to go back to their normal lives like before. They know that it will take years to go back to normal lives but they want to start as soon as possible without any delay and along with all the peace lovers of the world let us pray that all the wars which are going on in the name of fundamentalism, places, religions etc will end in the New Year.