City set to ring out the old and ring in the new

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 28: Guwahati is set to ring out the old and ring in the new at mid-night on December 31. Even though it is taken for granted that ‘nothing under the sun is new’, no power on earth can prevent one from hoping something new and hoping something anew. As is the case with every New Year, on the eve of this New Year also people from all walks of life and from all groups of age have great expectations, hopes and aspirations.

“At some point in time, education, it seems, becomes burdensome. The competitive world outside academics and syllabi demands knowledge of all hues. The overloaded school and college curricula, as often as not, prevent students from studying books outside their syllabi. I hope the proposed education Act in the year ahead will address the grievances of students,” said Smrity Rekha Das, a TDC first semester student of Cotton College, Guwahati.

“I aspire that the bureaucracy will be made free from corruption in the year ahead. The initiation has already been made by the government, but still much is left to be done. In our time we did try our best to lessen the suffering of people, but nowadays we get mostly news like cash-for- job scams,” said a retired irrigation engineer, Dilip Saikia.

A roadside barber in the Paltan Bazar area in the city kept gazing at the sky. Maybe, he does not see anything that may cause a turround in his fate.

“I earn Rs 500 a day. I spent half of it as rentals and the other half on my family. I live a sluggish life. The New Year won’t encourage people to have their hair cut at my shop. I don’t see any positive changes that may add to my earning,” said Abhiraj, a roadside barber hailing from Katihar in Bihar.

“The demonetization has hit the day-to-day life of the common people. You can see even today that there are no buyers. I feel good after selling something at the early days of the New Year. I think I won’t be able to earn this year as I did in the previous years,” Jatin Deka, who owns ‘Style Apparels’ at Panbazar in the city, said.

Shifting from his persol life to professiol life, Nitul Bora, traffic police personnel, is worried over drinking and driving. He said: “People often go crazy on New Year eve. They drive being drunk. I don’t like to see accidents. Accidents at the beginning of a New Year don’t augur well for the rest of the year. It’s considered an ominous sigl for the whole year, in so far as road accidents are concerned. Let good sense prevail on them to follow traffic rules while driving.”