Dhhammmm! Happy New Year, and there you go, that is how you navigate it, mark your red letter days and hang it.

New Year? And happy?

We decree it when we do. And such is as happiness is.

But you cannot hang it, can you? Not this thing. Look at the blooming size of it, seems like a candidate for a fitness programme, doesn’t it? The girth of it, baba!

Humpf! Euuugh! Can’t move it, leave alone lift it. Where the devil is this thing going to go? I mean we do need it, you know, to check days and schedules and stuff but... Actually, is it what I believe it to be or is it something entirely else? It’s not your usual on-your-marks of the year calendar, is it? This thing is something else. Tell me now.

No, you’re right about that. This is no calendar. Them days are done, calendar days and calendar weeks and calendar months and calendar years. Over, in the bin, sodden history. Don’t say we didn’t tell you. We did, several times, but were you paying attention?

We are in the era of Caals. We have Caals. No more days and weeks and months and years and decades and centuries, woh sab khatam. Ab Caal. One Caal after another. Such Caals as we name, such Caals that we do not know their duration. Such Caals that we have yet to figure out the math of measuring them, and the lengths of terms, etcetera, if they will be things we can measure in lengths at all. Not sure. We do not know anything about Caals except that they are here to stay. The rest is a work in progress. You shall be told.

Like you were told about A Mrit Caal. And then about Cartavya Caal. They are purposefully named Caals — A Mrit Caal, CartavyaCaal. One was announced and before the term of the announced one was over, came the second one. But wait here a second. The term of the first one is not over. Whoever said? A Mrit Caal is rolling out and calling upon all of you to inhabit its intents and purposes. We did say it will last so many years and so forth but years is not a way to fathom them. We do not yet know how to fathom Caals. Can they be fathomed at all? Who’s to tell? All of this is new to us. This is the NeverBefore we had promised you. This is the sort of thing that was meant to begin happening at the end of NothingHappened. So there, hold on to this. Dhhammmm!

There are dates
And there are dates
Ones to keep, ones to eat
And then there are eras
You are in one, or in two
And I trust you know
Because there will soon be
Another coming along.