Sarvajeet D Chandra

India begins the year many times over. Each region marks its own new year: Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Puthandu, Baisakhi, Parsi New Year, the fiscal new year, and more. Every regional new year carries its own rituals, its own food, its own clothes. These moments are intimate, quiet, and deliberate. They are days for family, for memory, for continuity.

January 1 stands apart. It belongs to no one and therefore to everyone. No deities, ancestors wait for it. It is the one new year that connects us across regions and beyond borders. It aligns India with the world and invites us into a shared global moment.

Unlike regional new years that turn inward, January first turns outward. It is about resolutions, public celebration, shared countdowns, and cake. It belongs to the collective present rather than inherited pasts.

In this Gregorian new year, I hope we remain a country that knows how to remember and how to imagine. This Indian duality is not a weakness. It is a design feature.

India thrives by holding contradictions in balance. As we step into 2026, I hope we celebrate this duality and make room for both. The social and the cultural. The global and the local. The public and the private.

This decade marks the beginning of the Indian century. As we enter our second Indian golden age, I wish you firm roots and fearless flight in 2026.