By Prashant Shah
On this New Year’s Day, let us set aside the soft, recycled wishes that ask for happiness, health, and prosperity without questioning who enjoys them and who is denied them. Let this greeting be firm, uncomfortable, and honest—a message that does not float like a greeting card but lands like a mirror. May this year begin with reflection, responsibility, and resolve for those who shape the world, break it, heal it, exploit it, and endure it.
To politicians across nations and ideologies: Happy New Year, but remember that power is not a personal inheritance; it is a loan taken from the future of your people. You begin this year with speeches full of hope—end it with actions full of justice. Resolve to speak less and listen more, especially to those without microphones or money. Make laws that serve the weakest before the strongest, and remember that history is ruthless to leaders who chose popularity over principle. This year, may your resolution be courage—the courage to tell the truth, to admit mistakes, and to place humanity above party, profit, and personal ambition.
To the richest people of the world, who together control nearly all its wealth: Happy New Year to you who have mastered accumulation, but now face the harder lesson of distribution. Wealth is not merely a reward for intelligence or effort; it is also a product of systems built by millions whose names you will never know. Resolve this year to see money not as a scoreboard, but as a responsibility. Invest not only in technology and luxury, but in dignity—education, healthcare, fair wages, and a livable planet. Let your legacy be measured not by how much you owned, but by how many lives were improved because you chose to care.
To medical doctors who once took an oath to heal: Happy New Year to you who hold life in your hands. Medicine is not just a profession; it is a moral calling. In the rush of targets, fees, and prestige, some have forgotten that patients are not customers and hospitals are not marketplaces. This year, resolve to treat before you bill, to listen before you prescribe, and to remember that compassion is as powerful as any drug. May you rediscover the sacred trust placed in you by the fearful, the sick, and the dying, and honor it with humility.
To businessmen relentlessly chasing money and success, Happy New Year—but pause and reflect on the cost of your climb. Profit gained by unethical shortcuts is not success; it is a delayed failure. This year, resolve to build wealth without destroying trust, to compete without cheating, and to remember that reputation outlives revenue. Let integrity guide ambition, so that your success creates value for society, not damage it.
To terrorists who kill innocent people in the name of religion, ideology, or revenge: This is not a greeting of celebration, but of challenge. If there is a new year for you, let it begin with the courage to stop. No faith, no cause, no injustice justifies the murder of children, the destruction of families, or the poisoning of the future with fear. Resolve to abandon violence and seek meaning without bloodshed. History does not remember killers as heroes; it remembers them as warnings. Choose, if you can, to be human before being hateful.
To the poor, the marginalized, and the forgotten—the true victims of injustice and a so-called civilized society: Happy New Year to you who survive despite systems designed to ignore you. Your struggle is not a failure of effort, but a failure of fairness. May this year bring not just sympathy, but solidarity. Resolve, where possible, to believe in your own worth even when the world denies it. Your resilience is the quiet force that keeps humanity alive. You deserve not charity alone, but opportunity, respect, and justice.
Last but not least, to India Tribune’s faithful readers, our trusted advertisers, the members of my family who always care for my well-being, and my friends who always supported me whenever I need them, I extend my heartfelt wishes for a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. May 2026 bring them abundant joy, continued success, and all that they truly deserve.
Let this New Year be more than a change of calendar. Let it be a moral reset. May those with power use it wisely, those with wealth share it generously, those with knowledge act ethically, those with hatred abandon it, and those with suffering finally be seen. This is not a wish meant to be broken in a month—it is a resolution meant to be lived, every day of the year ahead.
