7

It is December. Much before the Christmas stars announce it, I feel the arrival of the month. Evenings become cooler. There is that tinge of chill in the air. The stars in the ink black sky twinkle through the veil of mist. This is my favourite time of the year. December, which comes after November and the rains, has a calming effect on the nerves.

Though in one of my earliest memories associated with the season there is a Christmas cake, December is not just about Christmas for me. Christmas became associated with ‘my December’ much later. But now Christmas stars and a lot of other things associated with Christmas figure prominently in the background of my December ‘landscape’.

December vacations during school and college days were a calmer affair – compared to the hectic Onam holidays. That may be one of the reasons why this ‘cold month’ has found a place in the warm corner of my mind. December and Christmas have something which seldom changes – unlike the Onam season, which almost always makes one feel ‘the yester years were better’. Each December is different. But each December is also the same, some how.

I realised the magic of December – December cast its spell on me, rather – when I first encountered A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in the form of a textbook in high school. The December portrayed by Dickens in the novel was a foggy and dark one, but the story and the atmosphere was gripping and left an everlasting impression in my mind. I have come across December and Christmas in many other books, but none came closer to the Dickensian December and Christmas depicted in this novel. No wonder people still consider it as the best ‘Christmas book’ (and the best ‘December Book’ for me). There are a couple movies which give me the ‘December feel’ any time of the year. One such movie is The Polar Express – a 2004 animation movie directed by Robert Zemeckis that tells the story of a magical train which takes a boy and a couple of other children who no longer believe in Santa Claus up north to meet St. Nicholas himself. It is not the story, but the music and the backdrop which make it a ‘December movie’ for me. So is Home Alone (the first in the series directed by Chris Columbus starring Macaulay Culkin).

If I have to do some travelling in December I see to it that the journey starts in the evening, so that I would get a chance to enjoy the soothing calmness of a December evening (and night). As the dusk falls one can see that the growing darkness has a tint of grey in it as a result of the mist which shrouds it. Churches, especially in small towns and villages, decorated with colour bulbs and Christmas stars appear as glowing islets of light. The songs of Carol parties which are on their way to visit houses led by someone dressed as Santa Claus act as the soundtrack. These are the sights and sounds I look forward to and enjoy very much during these nocturnal trips.

There is something about December which makes my mind and thoughts calmer and clearer.

Elliot described April as the “cruelest month” which “breeds Lilacs out of the dead land” in The Waste Land. But December breeds hopes – or that is what I feel.