Indian sages used to say deep things in just a few words. He has said – Forget the past, look forward to the future, that is, nothing will be achieved by holding on to the past, think about the future and make plans to make it happy. What I mean to say is that the new year should begin with new expectations. Every year gives many ups and downs and sweet and sour experiences. We can look at the events of last year, so that we do not repeat past mistakes and learn lessons from them in the new year. This is also the time to make future plans. This is the reason why the whole world welcomes the New Year with enthusiasm. Ups and downs are an integral part of life. Past bittersweet experiences can help us build a beautiful, happy and just future. If we go beyond our own and our family’s limits and bring some happiness and a ray of hope into people’s lives, then I think we have succeeded in our objective.
From a political point of view, the new year is the year of national elections. General elections decide the political direction and condition of the country. Through these we hand over the keys of power to some party or individual. The answers to these questions lie in the future, whether the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi will return as the leader of the BJP-led NDA alliance or whether a coalition government will be formed under the India Alliance. This is an important year for BollywoodWallah also. BollywoodWallah is going to complete 40 years of its establishment in Ranchi this year. This is a big achievement. BollywoodWallah started its journey from Ranchi on August 14, 1984 and within a short time made its place on the national scene. Today BollywoodWallah is published simultaneously from eight places – Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Deoghar, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Kolkata. Despite being published from only three states, BollywoodWallah is ranked among the top Hindi newspapers of the country. Publishing a newspaper was challenging earlier also, but in the present times it has become more challenging. Despite this, BollywoodWallah is moving forward with full strength.
The next year and let us say the next decade belongs to Artificial Intelligence and Electric Vehicles. Both of these are disruptive technologies or we can say that they will bring unexpected changes in the existing system. This is just the beginning and its far-reaching effects are already visible in many areas. Technology has changed the lives of all of us. We do not realize how fast technology is taking us under its grip. The side effect of this is that we have all started living in a virtual world. Whether young or old, our sleeping-waking, reading-writing and eating habits are all affected by a small technological invention, the mobile. We are all becoming strangers. The whole world is struggling with this challenge. A few years ago I had the opportunity to participate in the BBC’s Leadership Summit organized in London. A shocking fact was revealed in it that every person in Britain touches his mobile phone an average of 2,617 times every day. I am not aware whether any such survey has been done in India, but my guess is that in India too we will not be far behind this figure. We will have to think about adjusting to the new circumstances. Last year, several incidents of misbehavior with security guards and other workers deployed in apartments came to light. In many incidents, the guard’s only fault was that he had asked the car to be parked at the right place. In Delhi itself, a female pilot and her husband brutally beat a 10-year-old worker girl. Such incidents happen daily across the country. We have to adopt a sensitive attitude towards domestic helpers. Upper and middle class people cannot even imagine life without them, while their minimum wage, working hours, holidays, nothing is fixed. We have to be sensitive towards them and take a pledge that we will have respect for them.
Our biggest challenge is to understand the young minds. Today’s children have changed. His conduct and behavior have changed. This has to be accepted. While talking to the youth, I have found that there is a feeling of distrust among the children towards their parents. Most of the children are not satisfied with the current family arrangement. Generational change is not your control. We have to adjust to the new circumstances and the most important thing is to maintain communication with the children. Pollution is becoming a serious threat to this country. The pollution situation in Delhi is serious, but the situation is not much better in many cities of Bihar and Jharkhand. For the last several years, worrying reports regarding pollution have been coming from various cities of the country, but the situation remains the same. We are turning a blind eye to this. No concern is being expressed. The situation of sitting idly by is very worrying for any country. If society is determined, conditions can be improved.
And finally an important thing. In this era of technology, social media has emerged as a powerful medium, but it is also very clear that social media is unbridled. We all receive countless news and videos every day through social media. Most of these are fake. It is very difficult for a common man to differentiate which news is true and which is fake. In this era of fake news, newspapers have emerged as the most reliable source of news. And while walking, read some lines from Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s poem – Friend, the new year has come! Yes! / Friend, the new year has come! / Get up to welcome it, / to fill your arms with love, / For the new year, look, it has brought new pains! / Friend, the new year has come.