Grab the opportunity and be happy unnecessarily

HYDERABAD: The New Year's Day truly offers an opportunity to be happy, unnecessarily.And, being happy without a valid reason is a good idea as finding such a thing is not easy these days. I always wondered how people become happy suddenly and without fail at the stroke of 12 on December 31 every year. To my best guess a majority of them are unhappy souls till 11.59 pm on the fateful night.The problems are mostly common: Low pay and a demanding boss, credit card dues, troubling car and everybody else coming on to the roads at the very same hour when one wants to go somewhere.But a minute later, they are all merry and charged. They shout "Happy New Year" and hug fellow 'until- then-unhappy' people, who also do a similar thing.When I share these thoughts with friends, they all say I am being cynical.I would not go far with this kind of unsocial mindset, especially in partying, they would say.True, all these years I did ignore all those new year party invites that are available to journalists. So, I decided to mend my outlook when there is still time. And yes, I see this silver lining on the cloud--one doesn't need any reason to be happy, as amply demonstrated by saints and madmen alike. However, problems still persist and I still have serious issues with the way people celebrate the New Year's Day. Medical wisdom has it that human liver can process comfortably only 90 ml of alcohol (42% proof).So, anything above that going down the throat is a sheer waste and constitutes, as with rash driving, an irrational behaviour. Though we do take some liberty with rationality at times, guzzling half a bottle is too irrational, even for an atheist or a Marxist intellectual. And to what end? Most of the party goers would reach home very late in the night (if they manage to stay conscious and do not run into trouble with AK Khan).They miss the new year sun rise and could get up only towards the evening when the birds return to their nests, that too with a big headache.Hic, Hic, Hurray...what a way to welcome a new year.