New year resolutions
The first time my fifth or sixth grade school teacher asked me about my new year resolutions, I looked at her with a blank expression. I had no idea what that meant. And, I would have had no further idea for years to come if, I repeat, if she had not asked us to come up with essays on the topic. That was also the year I was introduced to the concept of writing your own essays. Till then, it was about cramming a few sentences in your head and spitting it out verbatim in the exam papers. I asked a few blokes around me as to what resolutions meant. All of them were as intelligent as I was, save for a few exceptions. These guys were writing as if their whole lives were about to be shaped by this composition. They formed a kind of protective enclosure, with notebooks and text books surrounding the sheet on which they were writing, on three sides. The fortress had an opening only for the pen or pencil to find its way through the gap. And the...