BENGALURU: American sitcoms make it look so perfectly romantic. The glitzy New York skyline, Times Square brilliantly lit-up, fireworks go off in perfect sync as the year changes and it is a new January 1. It looks even better if there is a bit of light snow just starting, and of course, every couple has to – as per sitcom rules – gather each other into their arms and share a nice, long kiss.
It is another matter altogether that December 31 is extremely cold in New York. It is cold, miserable and you need a lot of New Year cheer to go through the day.
Despite the reality of the cold, the fact of the matter is that couples everywhere now have that expectation hanging over their heads. Even if they are not in Times Square watching the ball drop and getting into a kiss, wherever they are, they really must have the moment with each other. Woe to anyone who just happened to need a bathroom break at that minute, or had just stuffed their face with some hastily-ordered biryani.
You may just as well kiss the year goodbye, and forget about kissing your partner. Does the new year kiss really have that kind of magic? Many couples quite likely have no interest whatsoever in these reveries and are in bed by their usual hours, making sure to shut their windows against the predictable midnight revelry. Other more traditional couples might turn up their joint noses at this midnight madness, and wait instead for Navroz, or Chithirai or any of the other two dozen New Year’s Days. Some might have other pressing priorities to bother with this.
The naysayers aside, for a lot of us, it means something – not because there is magic in the air at that hour, but because we decide it means something to us. We put in that magic into that New Year kiss. We tell ourselves that with that new kiss to start the new year, we are committing afresh to a happy new year with our partner.
The magic is fully ours. So, go ahead if you like it – seek your partner out and share that New Year moment.(The author is a counsellor at InnerSight)