Longing For The Feel-Good Factor In 2020

The joy of living has been eclipsed for the past few months by an abiding sense of fear, anger, frustration and shame

- K Jayakumar

Most of us have stepped into the new year with mixed feelings. We are relieved that the chaotic 2019 is behind us. But is the newborn year going to be any better? As the variables of the game remain as complicated as before, it might be naive to expect a drastic turnaround. But it is human nature to hope for the impossible, defying logic. And what are the most detestable things in our midst that we wish to bury? None of us would expect to find final solutions for all our socio-economic and political afflictions. Nor would we imagine our country to be free of corruption and immorality in public life. None would dream of realising the Gandhian ideal of bidding adieu to ‘politics without principles, commerce without conscience and education without character’.

Even without attempting to overhaul the juggernaut of our polity and reviving the slothful economy, there are a few things that we as a people should pray for in 2020 so as to regain that feel-good factor. And it is not the total absence of socio-political problems but the presence of the feel-good factor that motivates people to go forward, braving difficulties and limitations. Once that contentment is lost, the downward spiralling of public enthusiasm will deepen the crises and dampen the creative exuberance of the people.