Last day of the year

Today is 31st December, the last day of the year 2018. While the first day of new year is for making resolutions, conceiving new ideas, nurturing fresh hopes and aspirations the last day of the year is to reflect upon the learning from the year about to go. In that sense, year 2018 could go down in the annals of history as a tempestuous year. It was a year of accidents and fires (especially in Mumbai) and insufficient rains (large part of India is facing draught like situation and farmers’ suicides are increasing) and disenchantment with Modi and controversial issues like Ram Janmabhoomi, name changing spree ( Allahabad becoming Prayagraj) and Donald Trump and Imran Khan and Navjot Sidhu and towards the end even Rahul Gandhi. Who could have thought these kind of things happening in US with Trump at the helm and Modi’s supremacy being challenged by Rahul. This was also first time since 2006 when a non Khan starrer Bollywood movie was the top grosser, the honour going to Sanju starring Ranbir Kapoor. It was also the year of grand matrimonial alliances with Deepveer, Nick Priyanka, Isha Anand – tying knots. India under Virat Kohli continued its domination in all forms of cricket. Three grand ladies heading three important banks (Arundhati-SBI, Chanda- ICICI and Shikha- Axis) all moved on by the year end. RBI Government spat, Rafale deal, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi kept media busy for all the wrong reasons.

By the above, 2018 should be considered a forgettable year, short of being fully disastrous. But our memories are short lived. Each year appears to us to be having coldest ever winter, hottest ever summer, heaviest ever rains, worst ever draught, strongest ever Indian team under Dhoni, best ever batsman in the world in Sachin, the most invincible Prime Minister ever in Narendra Modi, the best ever year for Shahrukh, the deadliest ever violence in Kashmir, the most serious divide amongst the communities and once the year sets into oblivion, we welcome the new year hoping for the best and forgetting the rest!