A letter to those who don’t feel festive during the New Year season!

My anxiety started growing as the last month of the year approached its end. Is it just me or does anyone share the feeling that December ends faster than it should? First, there are those days, which I call the ‘discount teaser’. Every shop welcomes its guests with a cheerful red placard hanging in the entrance that shouts, “50% FLAT discount” with fonts larger than the fear that clutches my purse!
Yes, like million other Indians, I too fall for the trap to buy unwanted things only because they are offered at half price and also because I suffer from an acute fear of missing out, or shall I say #FOMO.My shopping cart is filled with clothes that don’t fit me. I am a big optimist so I buy clothes that are smaller in sizes because someday I might lose weight next year and fit into those. And the rest of the clothes are of bigger sizes, in case I put on weight and have enough clothes to fit me and my ego. And by the time the year ends, I end up spending my savings, making me partly sad and happy.
Then come the days when some frantic friends call up at unearthly hours asking about New Year’s Eve party. “We all are meeting at so-and-so’s place for a night over. Are you coming?” This is an invitation that should be taken with a pinch of salt. Because there are more chances that you might not even know the host and the invitation is only extended by a friend because he needs someone to company him to the party. Second, your profession (mine is an unforgiving world of journalism) doesn’t believe in celebrations that require employees to go on leave. And by the time you end up getting a decent invitation to a party you are looking forward to or plan one yourself, you remember the deadlines you need to stick to, which demands that you better stay in office on New Year's Eve. That’s life!
After years of experience, and I don’t just mean work experience, I can announce (that too without an iota of embarrassment) I don’t feel festive during the New Year season or as most calls it, the ‘Holiday’ season. I have a faint idea of how the craze for the ‘Holiday season’ caught people’s fancy in India. Thanks to those working with multi-national companies. The countries that are deeply buried in snow during this season and those who celebrate Christmas (like real white Christmas) have this tradition where the last week of December and sometimes the first week of the New Year have holidays. And they have some valid reasons to do so—first, it’s too cold and second, it’s Christmas. Of course, we have to follow that too. Most of us feel festive and all we need is some fake snowfall to complete the scene, right? But let’s not get into an argument because we already have invested our energy on protests this Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) this year.
The political condition of the country, the financial state of my bank account, combined with the stress level at work has conspired to keep the festive feelings away from my life. Then again, there is that lingering hope of a celebration but then comes the devil's advocate for my festive feelings–the unforgiving traffic and restaurants that reply to my frantic call for a reservation with, "Sorry, ma'am the booking is already full. But I can put you on our waiting list."
Yes, I too have put my festive mood on my waiting list!