A NEW YEAR WITHOUT FIGHTING

N: Shish, On such an auspicious day, why are you talking about fighting? Just the day after tomorrow a New Year is being born. We want it to be a Happy One, no?

Sh: That is precisely why I want to talk about fighting today. So that in the New Year, people do not fight, so we will not have to talk about fights.

N: I am not able to imagine any year without people fighting and people talking about fighting. May be I am used to it.

Sh: But I don’t understand why every human activity in life, we have a fight involved…..

N: No, there you are wrong…… Not every activity….

Sh: OK. I will conced that. I correct it to ‘Most of the activities’…… Take today’s newspaper. Diplomats expelled for hacking, somewhere chief minister and deputy chief minister suspended, father and son fighting in politics, There is a fight about a chief minister recently passed away … endless it is. Now, don’t tell me it is part of democracy and nation building.

N: You see ….

Sh: I think it looks really awful vocabulary. Just let us look at the democracy. You always ‘fight’ the election. It is always said that it is a triangular ‘fight’ in a particular constituency, if there are three major candidates.

N: I agree, I have also noticed that.

Sh: In some party, it is ‘war’ between the factions. Why should we say we fight the elections and war between groups? Why can’t we say that there are three candidates hoping to be elected to represent the constituency? Why there should be war? Why can’t they have just difference of opinion?

N: May be it is necessary to get people more interested in election. Otherwise it will just be a bland affair.

Sh: See, that is what I say. If peaceful descriptions are not interesting to get peoples’ interest, then you resort to express violently.

N: But Shish, Election comes only once in a while. Not every day.

Sh: And once one election is over then it is always fight till next election. But, it is not only in Election – Take sports. Team A crushed by team B, though team B gave them a good fight would be very commonly used expression in sports news. When a football team was ‘trampled over’ by the opponent when another tennis player did not know what hit him. ‘Knocked out of the tornament’ is also a common expression.

N: But then ……

Sh: In hockey, team A scored two goals, but team B fought back fiercely and managed to draw the match. Fight between players and players, players and the referee and referee and the coach are generally considered normal. Then you have fighting in the queues, fighting in TV debates between panelists …….

N: Enough, enough….

Sh: Temples and other places of worship are also used as a battleground sometimes. Endless examples of streetfights – Ok, ok. Enough, if you say so.

N: Yes, And there is nothing you can do about it.

Sh: Of course, we can. We are going to request everyone to adopt a New Year resolution, that they will not fight throughout the coming year. In fact, in TKS we are going to put up a banner. If necessary, we will give some tips what resolutions to adopt – free of cost.

N: But how can fighting be avoided? New year resolutions are always meant to be forgotten in a couple of days after they are adopted. Naradaa once did it – means, adopting a couple of New Year resolutions. But within 4 days, I just forgot what the resolutions were!!!