New year's resolutions

Every year people love to make new year resolutions, which generally get broken soon. The variety of these resolutions is interesting. Someone promises to uplift health of body and mind, by avoiding junk food, or promises to go jogging every morning. Someone may think of strengthening relations by being more tolerant, while other may think of trying to do something just for one month, like not drinking alcohol in January! Life becomes interesting by the simultaneous flow of attraction and aversion of what drives us towards or away from ideas, people and obsessions. I remember one of the funnier new year resolutions made by a neighborhood group, which included the age group of sixteen to seventy two. Every morning they gathered near our adjacent park, and laughed very loudly together for thirty minutes. It was a laughing club, and members wanted to strengthen their lungs to fight back the heavy pollution of Delhi. It was indeed a very noble thought, but our Dog did not think so. Every morning, standing near the gate he barked loudly at them to show his protest. Their joint symphony, (Jugal bandi) forced us to be early risers. This year, at the age of eighty four, when I was trying to find a meaningful new year resolution, some thoughts popped up in my mind and brought a smile. Recently we were travelling from Madras to Pondicherry by car. On our way we stopped at a roadside Dhaba (small eating place), to have a cup of coffee. Chairs were arranged under the green canopy of a big banian tree. While we were settling down, we all noticed a few malnourished hungry dogs nearby. Some of them gave birth to puppies and were more fragile. They looked at us, with mixed feelings of both fear and expectations. My son Prodeep is not only a great animal lover, but also is a man of action. He immediately ordered six plates of rice, curd etc. for them, and when Dhaba people objected to serve dogs on their steel plates, he bought all those plates from them. The dogs were very happy, came near us and polished off all food in no time. After that, while wagging their tails with happiness, came to us and looked at us with loving gratitude. Their silent loving gesture was our best new year gift, which touched our hearts, and we preserved that tender feeling in mind like a precious treasure. True we cannot bring permanent solutions of many problems in this impermanent world. But by practicing the simple act of sharing and caring for all life on this earth, one can bring divine joy to others as well as to one’s own self. On the famous saying “Life is to give, not to take“ we may form new resolutions for this new year. That noble resolution stands on three pillars. First is to shower unconditional loving kindness to others, especially to deprived ones, secondly to develop attitude of sharing and caring for others and also to nurture sincere gratitude towards almighty, who has blessed us with a privileged life.