last day of the year

Its been such a great year, inspite of the volcanic eruptions and the tidal waves and the buildings which routinely fell on people's heads because of bad construction. There is something very odd about life, people have things happening to them, in various degrees of intensity, and some visit hell on their way to work. What I find most interesting is the heroism of every day lives, the dignity of people who see their fate as interesting to themselves and who then make sense of their day in the best way they can. Sometimes these tragedies are so huge that they can never feel alone, because there are others who are quite dead, and will not have a Gregorian new year to wake up to. The odd thing about India is how many new years we celebrate...endlessly waking up to a new year, because we have 22 languages and now 22 new years to match.