Missing year: What happened to the year zero?

2015 is coming… that is first of January will mark the beginning of the two thousand fifteenth year of the Common Era or CE. Till some time back it was not unfashionable to say AD (short for Anno Domini). The Latin of course translates to year of our Lord, which would be objectionable to everyone other than those of Christian faith and those who have faith in Hindutva.

Christians shouldn't have any problems with AD since the Domini or Lord in AD refers to Mr. J. Christ - designated son in the trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. In fact, the complete phrase in archaic Latin reads Anno Domini Nostri Iseu Christi - in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hindutva believers shouldn't be having a problem with AD as well. Why? Because according to some completely unreliable sources and possible loonies, everyone was a Hindu to begin with. So, if Jesus were a Hindu, there need be no problem in calling him Lord J or Santji.

But in a truly globalised and democratised world, where everyone might have begun a Hindu and a vast majority may be Christians now, there is always respect for minorities and their feelings. So we have come up with CE for Common Era to replace AD and BCE - Before Common Era to cope with times BC - Before Christ.

My problem, however, is mathematical. We are missing a year and everyone is missing that. No one is concerned about missing a whole year. If you look at any 3000 year or more calendar you will notice the discrepancy. There is no "zero" year. One BCE is followed by one CE, or, in the older system, one BC is followed by one AD. What happened to the year in between? What happened to the year of the Common Era? What happened to the year of Lord J (or Santji)?

Mathematically there is this gap year. And here is a problem to elucidate that - suppose someone was born in five BCE and died in 45 CE, would he have died at the age of 50 or 51?

Let's consider something more important - Emperor Ashoka and his celebrated pillars and columns. For India, the four-sided Lion Capital at Sarnath erected by Ashoka is the National Symbol, and the wheel at its base is central to the National flag. According to historians, this particular pillar with the capital was erected in 250 BCE so in 2015 would it be 2565 years old. Or would it be 2566 years old? How can there be any inconsistency in the age of National Symbols? Isn't that harmful to the very concept of national pride? So many important answers to important questions are in a limbo. How long ago was Manu born? How many years have passed since the battle of Kurukshetra? How old is the Ramayana? Do we add one to all the answers? The simple answer is we don't and so is perpetuated one of the greatest mathematical anomalies of the Common Era.

For a nation of Hindus (remember every one began a Hindu) and a civilisation that is thousands and thousands of years old, there cannot be a gap in the accounting of it. As a proud nuclear armed nation, that can also go to Mars at one-tenth the cost of anybody else, there is no way India should tolerate a calendar that has a year missing in it. If it had been any other year, India could have ignored the slight but it is the year zero... and everybody knows who gave the world its zero - a Hindu… so, by definition, obviously also an Indian.

The calendar needs to be corrected. Another year has to be added for the one that we lost 2 thousand and 14 years ago. Better late than never, so I demand that we put off 2015 by 365 days and have another 2014. How about that?