It is the last day of the year. The clock precisely shows 10:07pm. It is the New Year’s Eve and the festive mood is in full swing. Everyone has their New Year plans happening and, at the very least, even those who do not have one are waiting for the midnight fireworks display.

Huddled under the blanket with a flashlight held above her head, Ilma is an odd sight. For her, the approaching midnight is not eagerly awaited because of the celebrations, but because Ilma finally sees her chance of starting anew. Hence, hidden away from the family, she is jotting down in her very secret diary, all her New Year resolutions. She has been at this task since 9:49pm to be exact. The New Year has provided her the perfect opportunity to mend her ways with the secret hope that she would not find herself being scolded for reasons easily avoided.

Her resolutions include: being extremely punctual about time; being regular at school; doing all her homework on time; no junk food.

While nibbling on some crackers which she plans to stop eating from tomorrow, Ilma has also resolved to read five books every month, make her bed every morning, have her breakfast daily with a glass of milk.

Her resolutions list is longer than this, but before we could probe further and Ilma could continue writing, it is 11:58pm and the firecrackers have started to go off. Excitedly, Ilma puts down everything and rushes to her balcony to watch the fireworks display.

The sky is lit up, there is a sense of joy surrounding ever­yone, amidst the happy cheers and endless firecrackers, Ilma loses track of time. Only when her mum calls her back from the balcony does she finds that it is in fact 12:38am and she has school in the morning. With her resolution in mind to wake up on time, Ilma hurriedly climbs in her bed, without bothering to clear up the work she was doing and ignoring her mother’s call to brush her teeth, in a matter of minutes she is found sound asleep.

“The end of term award for keeping all her resolutions for the year and thus being the best student goes to Ilma Ali....”

Ilma is dreaming peacefully only to be shaken by her mother who is almost on the verge of screaming as it is 7:22am. Ilma is late for the very first day of the new term.

Ilma finds that the 6am alarm didn’t work on her and she is seriously out of time as she hurriedly changes into her uniform and grabs her lunchbox, but forgetting her water bottle in the hurry. The bed is left unmade and breakfast untouched.

Ilma catches the school bus just in time to remember that the first book she was supposed to start reading for this month has been left at home.

Many more realisations dawned upon her once in class. She has forgotten to do her maths practice homework given during the winter break to help give a head start this term. She has forgotten about her language workbook which she definitely did some practice on during the break and the teacher now demanded the proof of her work.

Ilma finds herself in deep waters. It is the first day of the year and she can already see it going horribly wrong. During the lunch hour, she finds herself getting anxious about not keeping any of her resolutions so far and continues munching on the candies her friends got for her, additionally buying crisps and juice, and losing the change on her way back from the canteen. Feeling horrible about herself, Ilma is on the verge of tears when the bell for the afternoon classes ring.

Fortunately, nothing further goes wrong and she passes the rest of the school day extremely impatient to reach home.

Ilma runs stra­ight up to her mum after rea­ching home and breaks down into tears for having failed miserably to keep any of her resolution so far. Mum calms her down and gives her lunch. Along with this lunch comes a lesson in wisdom only mothers are capable of dishing out.

She explains to her, “Change is not sudden but gradual, and improvement in our habits and routines require persistent efforts, not to mention that we cannot isolate a day from all the previous events leading to it and suddenly decide to start afresh.

“A decision needs to be taken in the right direction but that is only the first step of the many that one must continue to take in order to fulfil long-term goals.”

Ilma listens attentively, as mum explains by telling her how bad tides can sink ships despite the sailors being well-prepared, that’s nature’s force and one must make peace with it. What matters is to rebuild the boat every time and continue sailing despite all odds.

“One bad day, one bad week or even a stressful month should not decide the course of your year, which can still be changed according to your will if you are insistent enough,” mum concluded.

Hence Ilma took her afternoon nap in peace that day, only to do all her homework on time in the evening, breaking down her big resolutions into smaller chunks and ending the day well prepared to face the sun as it rises again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 27th, 2018