Bling bashes, jamboree glows

Night-long indulgences, countdown craziness

The extravagant welcoming of a new year —

What are we celebrating?

A sham!

One year —

The growth, the experience, the journey of a year lived.

Yay yay the celebration!

Twelve months —

Our blessed self of the twelfth, 

Not the same entity that entered the year in the first.

Oh! Doesn’t that call for merrymaking!

Weeks, all fifty two of them, 

The hits and misses, highs and lows,

Gains and losses, births and deaths,

To all this… a toast!

Three hundreds, five and sixty days,

Each a unique one as each night fell,

Survived the vibrant, the placid,

The agonising, the bad-haired one,

The ones we faced with strength,

The ones that strengthened us,

Rounds of celebratory cheers to all that!

But most importantly, close as this year is to an end,

Is there brought to a closure 

The pain, the grief, the dismal, the defeats,

The partings, the bitings, the silences, the sharpness,

The unforgivable stories narrated thro’ this year?

If yes be the answer that the heart says, then,

Jive into a celebration like none other, for, 

The fairy dust of forgiveness will emit sparklers of joy,

Peace will flow like abundant wine,

Love will satiate your hungry belly,

And heartfelt good tidings will light up cheery smiles.

This, my dear, is the party you should be in,

This, my dear, is how you must toast the new year in!

— Vidya Shankar (Dec 31, 2018)