What is a "new year"? All that boom, all that brouhaha. For what?

Every night, I write a journal before going to bed. It's a bullet account of whatever happened for me on that day. I've been doing this since March 2012. Been fourteen years, and I've not missed a day.

This habit began when I was out in the markets of Chawri Bazaar, looking for paper distributors for our college newspaper (my first entrepreneurship project). That's when I saw that little diary you see at the top-right of the stack in picture. Since that day, I've written about every day of my life in short, but effective bullets. It's been a constant ritual.

These diaries have the journeys of my experiencing every book I've ever read, every movie I've watched, every song I've written, every product I've created, every person I've met.. and so on. I can literally re-live every day of my life in full graphic detail, if and when I want. And whenever I do, it's a beautiful feeling.

This system, more than anything, helps me be honest with myself. I know what I've been doing, how hard I've actually worked. How many times I've won (and deserved it). How many times I lost (and deserved it, too). I've often noticed that we're so consumed by our daily shenanigans, that we often forget that a lot of stuff that's really bothering us right now won't matter at all when looked from a slightly zoomed out lens.

It's good to be deep in a moment, but it always helps to zoom out from time to time as well.

This year, like every year, was extremely eventful. My new startup began and got backed by some of the best entrepreneurs of India. We started building a terrific product which will be out in public soon, but is already doing extremely well in the shadows. As a musician, I launched four songs, two of which got featured on National Radio and TV. I read 10 books, watched 58 movies, and also started a big creative project with a terrific partner. All very exciting stuff.

I often think about the whole idea of "new year". What is it all about? What does it even mean? Why do we attach such lofty schemes with what's actually just another date? Every year, people begin by giving themselves such nice "challenges", only for all that to go stale within a week. All that boom, all that brouhaha. For what?

While I can't answer for anyone, a "new year" for me has become something very simple to define. It's basically a new journal. A brand new diary with beautiful, fresh, crackling pages ready to get filled.

Every year, I begin writing the journal hoping that I'll have a lot of good moments to fill it up with. A lot of hopes, a lot of good wishes. A lot of prayers for moments where dreams come true. The years pass, sometimes with many great moments. Sometimes none at all. But no matter how the year goes, after all those days, the diary inevitably comes to an end. And then a new one comes along. With 365 empty pages waiting to get filled.

A new year is just 365 empty pages. Hope you get to fill 2026 with a lot of beauty, success, laughter and love. Good luck.

My 14 years, and a new one coming.

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