2014, Be Done With You!

It’s a sombre post I write as 2014 slips into history. Barely ten of the 162 bodies have been fished out of the icy waters off the coast of Borneo. Another crash in SE Asia, another linked to Malaysia. Not just lives, families stand destroyed.

Yet our hyperventilating TV Anchors are screaming themselves hoarse over the timing of Dhoni’s resignation from test cricket. The media is always like a dog with a bone. Wearily, I switch to CNN and BBC.

Earlier, the horrific massacre of school children at Peshawar. We empathised. My own children have studied at Army Public Schools at Udhampur, Bangalore and Dhaula Kuan (Delhi). I don’t think any event affected me quite as much.

Animals! They shouted `Allah-o-Akbar’ (God is Great) as they mercilessly snuffed out young lives. Lives yet to blossom. How great can your God be if this is done in His name?

Islam needs some serious introspection. Maybe it’s not merely the interpretation that’s skewed. Maybe it’s the texts themselves. But oh, it’s not about Islam, is it? It never is!

  

But there have been positives too. We’ve finally rid ourselves of that Italian waitress and her cohorts who have systematically decimated the country. We have a man with vision at the helm, a firm hand at the tiller.

But he is slow. And we are in a hurry. Soon, the promise that he showed may fade. The economy has yet to get the `animal’ instinct it’s been screaming for. Canon mouth ministers continue to make idiotic statements, and remain unchecked.

On the sports front, our badminton stars did well. Apart from Saina Nehwal, we now have Kashyap, Srikanth and Sindhu among the world’s elite.

We won the Asian Games gold in hockey, thus automatically qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

But Vishy couldn’t regain the chess crown, are his days over?

On the personal front, we made delightful trips to Singapore and the Andamans. While Singapore had mind blowing 4G speeds, there was virtually no data network in the Andamans. Ah, the facets I notice, it’s a digital world after all!

2014 has been brutal. 2015 can only be better.

`Happy New Year’ messages pour in on WhatsApp. I try to personalise each response. I mean every word.

How do I plan to ring in the New Year? Wrapped up in a quilt, watching TV, I suppose. Age has its downside, sigh! I remember the Dordarshan days where the 31^st December programming was special. Now with the proliferation of TV channels that are indistinguishable from each other, it’s one big mish-mash.

May all of us see a bright and fun-filled 2015! May `Mitti Pao!’ flourish, may love continue to conquer!

New Year Resolutions? Watch this space…