We are on the first day of the New Year 2018. I have been getting a lot of innovative inputs from the internet to plan my resolutions for 2018. But then I thought I will learn what the ‘resolution’ means. According to the dictionary resolution is to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve life. Its origin is traced to Babylonians who made promises to their Gods at the start of each year that they would pay off their debts. Likewise the Romans began each year by making commitments to the God Janus, from whom the first month of the year is named. That’s how the practice of making the resolutions is going on till date.
Making resolutions (call it manifesto) is one of the easiest things most of us (including politicians) do, but implementing them is always difficult and there are many adjournments your honour. A person addicted to bad vices (including frequenting casinos, women, etc etc) keeps postponing the dates of giving it up. When a new government comes to power, the leaders come out with many coercing resolutions. The first of them is: Our government will nip corruption in the bud. But the reality is botany: the bud grows into a flower and the insects pollinate and the pollens of corruption are carried away and cross pollination (money changes hands) of corruption takes place, fruits of corruption are produced and consumed and the reproductive cycle of corruption goes on. The botany becomes so complex and advanced that nobody is able to trace the bud, forget about the guessing the species and genus of the corrupt plant. So make your resolution that you will not partake in the above cycle.
The second resolution is: Our government will provide 24 x 7 electricity and water supply. Water water in the river but not a drop to drink in summer! Yes, we face the rationing. But why? At some places the piping network is so old that transmission loss is huge. The list of consumers has increased manifolds so the water pressure dips at many places. As for the electric supply, you cannot trust the overhead conductors and the transformers. The branches of the trees which you have planted along the roadside of your property give sleepless nights to the linemen and dark nights to your neighbors. It doesn’t end there. At the end of the billing cycle you are in for a rude shock: the deadline is just three weeks away for your payment of a hefty bill! So make your resolution that you will draw well water and use solar power in 2018!
Our government will work to preserve Goenkarponn (Goa, Goans and Goan identity) is the third resolution of the government of the land. Much water has flowed under the Mandovi bridge since Goans started migrating to greener pastures (a land flowing with milk and honey?) Why is the Goenkarponn eroded so much that we have become minority of late in our own land? Whom to blame? Did we not take the stupid resolution to surrender our 500-year old (or even older) Goan identity to the foreign passport? Have we not taken a foolish resolution to sell our ancestral properties to land sharks for 30 pieces of silver? If the migrants can make hay in Goa while the sun shines why can’t we cherish our dreams in the land of our ancestors?
