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Writer and Musician, Jahnavi Harrison: 
I’m not sure if new year’s resolutions are still a thing in this abnormal time we find ourselves in. At least not like they were before. The challenges and losses over the past year have left many people I know letting go of ambitious plans that involve money, travel or lots of time in a gym, and working on the kind of less glamourous resolutions that are probably harder, but more rewarding in the long run, like being unfailingly kind to themselves and others, or taking a steady five minutes a day for meditation. 
Whatever the case, 2021 began nearly two weeks ago which is round about the time, traditionally, that my new year’s resolutions start to crumble. So I’m always grateful for the second boost that comes in the Hindu calendar, a festival called Makara Sankranti, which happens to be today! Sankranti means journey, and refers to the day that the sun moves into a new zodiac sign, marking the gradual transition to warmer days. 
It has different names in different regions of India, but it’s celebrated all over with a very similar spirit – with dance and singing, bonfires, cooking special treats like sweets made of sesame seeds and raw sugar, bathing in holy rivers, and offering prayers of gratitude to the Sun. In the eastern state of Orissa, both men and women tie a special thread around a friend’s wrist and wear it for the whole year til next January, taking the opportunity to focus their love and care on that one person in different ways as the months go by. Perhaps the most famous activity on Makara Sankranti is kite flying. 
Once I arrived in Mumbai the day after the festival. Bleary and jet-lagged, driving from the airport into the city, I could see hundreds of coloured diamonds, soaring above the rooftops. The road we were driving on was long and straight, and the image got burned into my mind’s eye during the long, trafficky ride. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s not a great deal of sun to celebrate, but even on a cloudy day, I see its brilliant light in my mind’s eye and heart. This is a day of keeping hope, and gratitude, rising upwards.