Reflections on 2021

I will not be unhappy to put 2021 behind me. While it has been an exciting and in many ways fulfilling year professionally, It was a year of great personal tragedy. We lost my uncle to cancer (he was literally like a second father to me) and my younger sister , a celebrated professor at IIT Bombay and one of my closest friends on the planet, who lost her life to post-covid complications. Both these events happened within 24 hours of each other.

I know that my situation is far from unique, and there are many who have been through tragic personal disruptions in the last two years. I am sharing this because I think that while the pain will never go away, we do find ways to move ahead and look forward positively, and I am writing this to share what this year has taught me, and in some ways, provide my own perspective on a happy new year ahead.

Every day, when we leave for work or return home, we take certain things in our life for granted. We assume that our family members will be there when we come home. We assume that we will still be in our jobs when we get to work, and will meet the same people we met yesterday. As teachers, we implicitly assume that if students were in our physical classrooms today, they will be in our classrooms tomorrow. We assume that the knowledge, resources and physical and mental capabilities we had yesterday will be with us tomorrow, and whatever we could do well yesterday, we will be able to do well tomorrow.

One of the things that recent years have taught us is that under some fairly realistic circumstances, each and every one of those assumptions can go wrong. If we are unlucky, multiple things we take for granted (our anchors) can be disrupted together, and this can make life seem overwhelming, and our ability to cope limited. How then, do we cope and move forward?

Time helps. Networks help. Having the support of friends and family who care deeply about you help.  Finally though, it is having things you care about which you enjoy doing, and through which you make a difference. In my case, it was the classroom and interaction with students. Almost paradoxically, you find yourself when you think about the difference you can make to someone else.

In doing so, I have reconciled to the fact that there is no real permanence to anything that we take for granted. Yet, the only way to live our lives is to treat our anchors as permanent. Security will then come from a greater awareness of our own resilience, and a sense of purpose and contribution that comes from a sense of service. In being aware of, and comfortable with, our own vulnerability, we are a little better prepared for what life may throw at us.

When we wish somebody a happy new year, we are in a sense wishing that life deals you cards that make you happy in the new year. (If happiness is completely within your hands, then there is no need for a wish-we just need to choose happiness.). Recent years have taught me that no matter how hard I try, I cannot completely control the cards that life deals to me . However, I can still find happiness in the way I play the hand.

In 2022, I wish all my friends luck with the hands that life deals you, and the courage and resilience to play even a tricky hand in a way that helps you find happiness. Happy new year!