A New Year resolution worth keeping

 

It was sometime in 1993-1994, I remember darting up and down the street near my house, looking for greeting cards. I was 10 then and had just discovered the joy of gifting, especially those cards in all colours- from pastels to bright shades with funny messages- for birthdays. That was the only special day of my friends that rang some excitement in my mind.

Every other day, I haggled with my grand mom to lend me a 10 or 20 rupee note to buy cards. She never understood why I insisted on gifting cards. But, after constant coaxing she finally relented.

I dashed to the decrepit shop next door that sold everything from foolscap sheets to knickknacks, to pick up a card. I remember jotting down some messages from the cards to reproduce on some other occasion. This one I know verbatim; I had memorised from a card that someone had gifted my elder brother on his birthday:

On this day, a volcano erupted in Italy.

Two hundred people died of plague in Britain.

A fire broke out in France.

And the worst of all.

You were born.

I had a huge bundle of 100 cards that my friends had gifted me during school days. Today, I don’t’ know where they are. Maybe, they got lost while we shifted houses. As years rolled by the good old greeting cards were elbowed out by e-greetings, and bulk smses shot at one go to all in the phone book.

So, why did I remember the obsolete greeting card? Recently, a friend on FB had put up a message, declaring she would start sending cards for the New Year. I decided to send greeting cards to my friends for the New Year. That is one resolution I am determined to stick to.

On days when we decided to get caught in a time warp, we can only sigh at our helplessness. We can only wish that we could actually get back to our old ways: restart a practice, or recreate something that is long gone. But, I am eternally grateful that good old greeting cards are still around, giving me a second chance to get back to them.