Shubho Nobo Borsho

A new year, once again. One more of those days which we just celebrate because all the others around us are doing the same. I am neither a Bengali nor do I understand the Bengali culture very much. Robindro Sangeet still remains alien to me. I am yet to understand as to why they pronounce Laxhman as Lakhhan in Bengali. The concept of reading all ‘a’ as ‘o’ is still a mystery. And above all, why do they write my name as Sourav even when I clearly tell them that it is Saurabh and not Sourav as in Sourav Ganguly. But still, I know that today is Bengali New Year. So “Shobho Nobo Borsho” (I hope I maintained the accent well). And all the credit for making me aware of this special day goes to my closest office neighbour who is my cubicle mate and who is one complete Bengali Girl. When I first met her, her Hindi was pathetic. Two years and she has improved a lot. But she still processes Hindi in the same way as she used to do in past. Listen a Hindi word, translate it to Bengali, Prepare the answer in Bengali, Translate it to Hindi and then speak. Generally this process works well. But at the times of crisis when she is under pressure, she mixes it all up. It’s ok. Not a big deal. She is the one who suggested that the Project’s Mid Summer Party should be called “Nobo Borsho Party”. Nothing bad with that name, but come on, we were thinking the names on the lines of “The Bacardi Blast”, “The Summer Splash” etc and she had this to give us. She is one sweet Bengali girl. Anyways the point here is not sketch the picture of a complete Bengali girl but to understand the importance of this new year.
I don’t want this day to pass as just one more new year day. I don’t want this day to be one more resolution day where I promise something to myself and forget it the same day. I don’t want this day to be one more day when I sleep all morning and go out in the evening for a dinner. I want this day to be a day of change. I want this day to be a day of construction and reconstruction. I want this day to be a day of hope. I know that writing a few fancy lines is not a big deal and words like hope, justice etc always fall in place. But my ‘Hope’ is different from the ‘Hope’ that appears in Neta’s speech. My hope is a hope that every common Indian holds that one day I will make my family proud, my friends proud and my country proud. Hope that one day I will be in a position to look beyond my own needs and will fulfil the needs of my family, my society and my people. This hope in itself requires me to develop a lot of courage and strength, and I promise to myself today that I will do it all, whatever it takes, to build myself so that one day all my current hopes turn into reality and I start building newer and bigger hopes.