Celebrations and Resolutions, 2026 Edition

Hello dear friends. Happy happy New Year. I maintain, it is perfectly valid to wish people a happy new year all through January, so here I am, right on time. 

2025 seems to have gone by in a flash and yet parts of it feel oddly distant, like they belong to a whole other century. Seriously, try as I might, I cannot remember much of it at all. Is it because my years are piling up or is it because of the sameness of the year, I wonder.

Memory is strange like that, minimalistic, discarding the ordinary days while keeping the good bits and, regrettably so, the bad bits too.

December has always been my favourite month. This year I had grand plans for New Year’s Eve. When I say grand plans I don’t mean partying and dancing. I mean special food while watching a cosy film together. Basically, the idea is to not slide unobtrusively into 2026, or worse, to fall asleep before the fireworks take over.

Anyhow, by the time the evening rolled around we had already overdosed on celebration through the month. There had been my favourite nephew visiting, then came Christmas and a whole slew of birthdays, including mine.

And so we decided to take it slow and easy. Cooking had to be collaborative with chores divided as follows:

Starters – N
Vegetarian main course – Me
Non-Veg main course – The Husband
Dessert – H
Where ‘course’ generously meant one dish each.

For my birthday, which falls a few days before the New Year, I asked H to bake me a cake. The deal was that it not be his signature banana cake, which he has long since perfected. What I had in mind was a simple sponge, maybe with cream or ganache topping.

H, however, took the request all too seriously and landed upon an alarmingly complicated layered almond cake recipe.

One thing must be said for him: he possesses immense confidence (even though occasionally misplaced). When he was just over two years old, he announced he could breathe underwater and nothing could convince him otherwise until we actually dunked him in.

Back to the cake, where the weak-hearted (me) would abandon a recipe if the list of ingredients crosses ten items, H remains entirely unfazed. He started from scratch, grinding almonds to make almond flour, layering coffee, butter-cream and chocolate. It wasn’t the prettiest cake but it was gloriously decadent.

It really didn’t matter, then, that by the time my nocturnal son was done with it, it was 3am of the day after my birthday! 

The upside? Dessert for New Year’s Eve was already sorted. 

All in all, it turned out a lovely evening, We ate till we could eat no more. The television crashed so we had nothing to watch but we chatted instead, which was infinitely better. 

And we shared resolutions. When the children were done, they turned to me for mine. I tried to wriggle out with my usual reading and writing goals but H promptly pointed out, ‘You do that anyway. Resolutions should be about something new or different, something aspirational.’ 

That forced me to think.

This past year, specially the final quarter, had far too many chaotic moments. In 2026, all I am longing for is routine. Quiet and undisturbed. Since so much of life remains outside my control, my resolution, if I must name one, is to seek quietness of mind, to remind myself to stay positive, to strive for peace, no matter what life throws my way.

That’s hard to explain to my teens constantly seeking newness, bursting with energy, thoughts and ideas, constantly planning new plans. Life, for them, is all about change, about becoming someone better, more impressive. 

I, on the other hand, am finding a growing ease in sameness – yes, the very sameness my memory refuses to register. I no longer feel the need to reinvent myself, I want to find comfort in who I am, who I have always been.

Will my life come to standstill if I stop striving for change? Perhaps.
Does’t living mean progress? Possibly.

And yet, quiet is what I want, what I need, now.

Maybe I will revisit this resolution a few months later. After all, who decided resolutions must only be made in January? Perhaps, then I will strike a better balance, enjoying a steady routine while staying curious enough to explore new ideas. For now, this has to be enough.

Wisdom, I believe, lies in knowing what one needs, and when. In this moment I’ll go with the famous Geet from Jab We Met – Bas Babaji, boring bana do ab iss life ko, please.

So, tell me about you. How did you ring in the new year? How have you been faring ever since? Do you have resolutions? A Word of the year? A vision board? Share please. I might borrow a thought or two.