As this Year is EndingU EndingU...

As the year is marching towards an end, as crackers light up all evening, and illumination on the main roads brightens up the holiday season, contemplation on the passing year also reaches a near end.

2011 had been a quite a year, to say the least.

India became the Wold Cricket Champions! Hurrah! The nail biting finish put me on Antacid for a few days. Man! Many bets went fut in Sri Lanka. And back home in India, it was as if an entire nation’s poverty and corruption issues were forgotten; for a while!

Many shifts. Many turns. Many surprises.

The dramatic end of Laden beats any Hollywood espionage material, though they say it is no free-entrance ticket for Obama for the second term. News reports managed to release loads of adrenaline into my system for quite some time. The intrigue lingered on. Pakistan Government is still lashing out at the military for having ‘housed’ the man.

The Arab Spring sent a message across the world – people are tired of tyranny. They need freedom of expression, freedom from corruption, unemployment etc. They need the fundamental needs addressed. They are sick of autocrats and people becoming larger than institutions and governments themselves. Give us a break! Several regimes fell; leaders either fled or got killed. Mubarak resigned; Gaddafi, they say, was sodomised and killed. Tunisia started it all, it was just a matter of time that the fire spread...

Rags-to-riches story came true in Buckingham Palace. Kate Middleton walked the isle and became the Duchess of Cambridge. Millions world over watched the “I do” part and felt gratified for reasons best known to them!

Later on London was also ablaze. The youth unrest and uprisal was a symptom of a burning problem plaguing the British society – social and economic reasons, inequality, unemployment and a protest against some government policies and the power of police were some of the reasons cited.

Europe was in bad shape; the eurozone debt crisis still lingers...

Steve Jobbs passed away. His life story is one that I will need to refer to many times, in future. Wonder why such stories come out only at people’s death!?

Back home in Incredible India, incredible things continued to happen. Tihar had a galaxy of high-profile political prisoners; corruption became kind of acceptable in India (so sad to say this), only the level of corruption mattered. It was dirty linen out all the time – the tax-payers became dhobis, trying to wash all those mucky linen. Demo-crazy it was most times. Well, that is the uniqueness of motherrr yindia – it is the land of extremes – the best of bests and the worst of worsts. But Indians also have had enough of corruption. They just want systems to function. Was the answer Team Anna? As much as the system is chaotic and dysfunctional as it seems in one level, the fact that an old Gandhian (whether his mission is right /wrong or the best way out is subjected to debate) could hold an entire nation’s and government’s attention, loudly speaks of the space still prevalent in our social and political space. Whether someone takes note of you or not is one thing – but still you can air your opinions, notwithstanding the fact that lathi charge and tear gas might be your only reward. But think of a system where there is no space for such expression? Suffocating – especially for live democracies. With all its chaos, crudeness, unfathomable inequities, something in the system still functions. Incredible India...!

Why this Kolaveri went viral. It legitimised the Tanglish (Tamil English) and it became a fad. Why it took aall this TimeU TimeU to understand regional idiosyncrasiesU? First when I heard, I heard nothing in it and wondered what has happened to our taste? I felt a fossil when millions were dancing to it. Then the second time around, something struck... and then it went on non-stop. Affected my system too. One more to add to my obsessive compulsive rewinding of songs.

In Sri Lanka, the first highway was opened. A journey of 3 hours now takes only 45 minutes flat. If that means Phew!, it does really! A few dogs have died so far on it and a few accidents have taken place. I yet have not hammered down the road, but will soon.

In a political tug-of-war, two parties fired at each other. One died, and the other is still (almost) living with one bullet in the brain! This is only in Sri Lanka!

The government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission released its report on the conduct of the final phase of war, accountability and all those international jargons. This is the report that the UN and the international human rights watchdogs had been waiting for. I have not yet seen the look of the report, but was told yesterday that it is two huge books, which can also serve as pillows, if the need be it. Not the coffee table kind, excuse me ! The island may be small, but not a dull moment or want of happenings I tell you!

Lots and lots more about the world...

And personally,

THE year started with the hum of the Bee. A fresh, revitalising Bee.

It had been a year of vivid and colourful dreams, a bit of bad health and a lot of contemplation. Wanted to get younger, so that my parents would be healthier and younger ... I looked at them, and wondered ....where did all those years go by... when my father would just pick me up in his arms at the East Fort junction to board a crowded bus... how he had a special way of lifting me up - not from the arms, but from my bottom, where he would bend down; .and when we grew up, he taught us that is the way to lift kids up because it does not hurt; how I would finish my lunch and reach the hand out so that he would wash mine along with his fingers...where amma’s relentless chores left her a busy body all the time, how all her rules irritated the life out of me at one time and make me laugh now...how my parents got old in bringing us up, then seeing us getting married, then seeing the grand children, and one of their children stopping the journey of marriage half way... Their wrinkles say a story each. Their forgetfulness is a reminder of something or the other. It tells me they are into their second childhood and that I am the parent now...

They brought me up. My parents. After a while, we grew up together. We still continue to...

Huh.

With very little ‘things-to-do’ for the new year and hardly any resolutions, I am just going to start reading The Argumentative Indian ... hopefully I will understand why, Indians need to be that all the time...?

Happy New Year to all. Good health. Lots of laughter. Good memories!