Daily Times

The New Year is upon us. It can only truly begin when this year ends, but most of us are already thinking about it. Some would approach it like a chapter to be written in the book of life; others wait for it to unwrap like an expensive box of chocolates.

I do not make New Year’s resolutions. I have no issue with those who do. It is just that the habit of making goals, of reviewing, of sanctioning them to mould my life, and associated guilt-trips are too much of a day to day affair for me. If I ever go there, I have those covered in the maxim, “All the things I really want to do are illegal, immoral or fattening”.

Almost all New Year’s resolutions are about defying temptation. This is despite common adage that one should avoid temptation unless one cannot resist it. Nonetheless, it is a devil, albeit one without the big black horns or pointy red teeth. Temptation appears as candies for children, intoxicants for adults and bribes for the influential. Since it is everything we ever wished for in that moment, we succumb to it despite knowing its consequences in the days to come.

One wonders what the New Year’s resolutions of our Finance Minister on sick leave is? The poor chap is in a tight corner due to past temptation. The New Year must feel rather distant to him at the moment. Before he thinks about resolutions, he is sending out a desperate Christmas wish-list to his perceived tormentors. His doubts are endless; if one is removed, another grows like leaves on a tree. The light at the end of the tunnel seems like a runaway train coming towards him. Most of us might think that the worst thing in life is to be lonely. If you ask Mr Dar, the worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel lonely.

Unfortunately, Dar’s one weakness has always been his undoing — an anxious predisposition. This makes him a great accountant (balances books quickly) but also a very bad economist (no longitudinal vision)

Not too long ago, Ishaq Dar was the de facto prime minister after elbowing Chaudhry Nisar out of the way by drying out funds to the National Action Plan. He headed numerous committees and even the Army Chief queued up to request spare cash for his troops. Unfortunately, his one weakness has always been his undoing — anxious predisposition. This makes him a great accountant (balances books quickly) but also a very bad economist (no longitudinal vision). As soon as his name appeared in the Panama Case, despite regular trips to various shrines, his anxiety got the better of him. He was eventually found lying on his back, so peacefully, in that hospital bed. Lady Chatterley was at hand to provide comfort, but in D. H. Lawrence’s words; “There was the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street”.

Political genius, Chanakya, had said, “The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog, which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects”. I wonder what he would have said about an educated man, Ahsan Iqbal? I suppose once you abandon your ideology (Jamat-e-Islami), life becomes a compromise filled with self-rejection. The way he used religion to defend his Saudi Iqama, I am unsure how proud his parents were of his performance. Thank God he wasn’t smiling while giving bizarre and contradictory statements during the Dharna fiasco. Why did he accept a portfolio he does not like or deserve? He has craved the limelight all his life and is now being found out. Be careful of what you wish for in life… or even making a New Year’s resolution!

I would like to propose that we have no goals or resolutions for the New Year. Let us just flow with our natural feelings, and appreciate the softness of touch, a timid smile, a gentle word, a listening ear, a sincere compliment, or the smallest acts of caring. Let us be like Jazz music — smooth, cool, an abandon, a conversation, and a connection with our fellow beings. Let us reflect while strolling through the corridors of our lives looking for potential to love rather than flaws to hate and reject. Let us make more mistakes, and learn from them. Let us try new things; change ourselves, and the world around us.

After surviving another difficult year, Pakistan must want for ‘Peace’ as a New Year’s resolution. But a new beginning can only be carved from the shards of the past, not from its abandonment. My take home message for all sides, including bystanders, in the recent religious Dharna is that if we desire a peaceful society, we cannot attain it through violence. If we desire a community that is without discrimination, we must not discriminate against anyone in the course of building that community. Similarly, if we yearn for a country that is democratic, then democracy must become a means and an end. This is my hope as well as a fear — that my end is not my beginning.

The writer is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Visiting Professor. He tweets @AamerSarfarz

Published in Daily Times, December 3^rd 2017.