…2008. Towards the end, it seemed like the year would never get over.

In the scheme of things, it wasn’t such a bad year. It just seemed that way.

Professionally it was a decent year – we produced our first feature film ‘Jhing Chik Jhing’, we finished a couple of documentaries and worked steadily in TV

. Personally it was slightly screwed. But, again in the scheme of things the latter doesn’t really matter. It hurts for a bit, but most hurt goes away. You realise that you have made some choices in life. And you have to live with those choices and the consequences of those choices. Once that realisation dawns there is peace 🙂

In the larger space it was more a good year than a bad one.
The Good
From an Indian perspective – it was the year of avoiding the financial implosion that threatens to sink western economies. The Regulator – RBI – and the Government’s own Financial Team deserves kudos for ensuring that we didn’t get burnt – we barely managed to get singed. In a globalised world there will be some impact – but I think that we are lucky that we aren’t in the soup others are.

The [tag]Right to Education bill[/tag] is through Parliament. It has taken 60 years to get here. I hope that the move to provide employment related skills as part of schooling doesn’t take 60 more years.

Justice caught up with the killers of [tag]Priyanka Bhotmange[/tag].

The Nuclear Deal and the Chandrayaan Mission hopefully would give a fillip to science and technology in India.

There is J&K with a 60% turnout that voted for India. There was Rahul Gandhi and his Discovery of India, and his presence as the voice of reason. There is Omar Abdullah whose passionate speech in Parliament and performance in J & K elections – that bodes well for the future.

There was also cricket the Dhoni factor and the And, the end of year coffer filling for Bollywood between Rab Ne and Gaji.

There is Manmohan Singh as PM, FM and I & B minister – which is Good. It is nice to see decency, intellect, integrity and belief in the Constitution in charge.

The Bad
The Bad has been there for quite some time… a lot of us just noticed it now !
There was terrorism – but there has been since I was in school – and that was a very long time ago. There was religious hatred – the saffron party led murder and mayhem in Orissa – but then, there has always been – under some name or the other. There was regional hatred – Raj Thackeray and his own brand of chauvinism, but again it is nothing new. There was the cash for votes silliness in Parliament – but we all know that horses are traded, albeit discreetly.

The Ugly
The coverage of the Arushi Murder case. The media acting as investigator, judge, and executioner … sad. The coverage of 26/11 – irresponsible. It’s a good job that the current I&B minister is a Democratic Republican 🙂

The reaction of the Saffron alliance on Hemant Karkare’s investigation of the Malegaon blasts. an inexplicable stand from those who claim to believe in the Nation.

I am happy that all these are out in the open, so that all of us can have a long hard look at them and ask ourselves, what have we done wrong? They exist because we allow it. We keep quiet. And, maybe that is the greatest gift of this year — that we won’t keep quiet.

I hope that 2009, is good and peaceful for all of you…