India, Jan. 3 -- Another new year has arrived. Fireworks have faded, toasts have been made, and resolutions have been written. And yet, if this were truly a new beginning, why does it feel like a familiar loop with a fresh date? Why does each new year, each new beginning, give a sense of deja vu? Why does the future reek of nostalgia? The pattern repeats so reliably that one must suspect our very idea of what 'new' means.

Apps spike their downloads, planners sell out, and the same old restlessness changes its wallpaper. The new year arrives like a deft salesman who has been knocking on our doors for centuries. He closed the deal last year. He closed it again this week. The question is not whether he is dishonest, but whether we are ready...