Words and whispers, 2006

Let8217;s take a quick run through the words and catchphrases of the year gone by

As another year slips, slides away from under our feet, let us 8212; as we usually do 8212; revisit some of the words, expressions, moments, which like pinches of pepper, turmeric, cumin, coriander, have flavoured 2006 for us.

It was a year when Pluto was ejected from the solar system, and King Gyanendra from his pedestal as Nepal8217;s quasi-spiritual monarch. It was a year when justice bore the name of two women long dead, Jessica and Priyadarshini, and when the Rang de Basanti brand of activism caught the imagination of the Indian middle class, including medical students outside AIIMS. Meanwhile, apun ka bhai enticed the nation with a touch of Gandhigiri. But reality has a way of spilling outside the camera frame, with Munnabhai alias Sanjay Dutt appearing as Accused No 117 in a Mumbai court and Siddhu had to go back to the pavilion on an old manslaughter charge. It was that kind of year, when the improbable translated into the probable, and the probable became the improbable and Bigg Boss was always watching, as 24-hour TV news cameras parked themselves everywhere 8212; in particular outside the Mahajan residence. But then, can reality shows ever hope to measure up to the real thing: a Praveen shooting down a Pramod in a fit of fratricidal rage; a Rahul discovered in a coke haze?

Rahul Mahajan was not the only one who lost his head. Zizou head-butted Materazzi in a shocking culmination to the Football World Cup. It was that kind of year. A year when nandrolone stopped Shoiab momentarily in his tracks and when Indian athletics came home bearing the medal of shame over doping incidents. As for the Prince of Kolkata, he regained his India cap.

Call it Dadagiri, if you will, but some say it beats Mamata8217;s didigiri. Indian politics, of course, remained as riveting as ever. The Indo-US nuclear deal got an awful lot of column inches, certainly, but there was a lot else. The OOPS controversy swirled around and Sonia Gandhi treated us to Renunciation II by resigning from Parliament. In fact, it was a year of reruns, and we are not just talking of Shahrukh Khan8217;s Big B act in Don II, or even of Dhoom II. Not only did the controversy over Vande Mataram and the Narmada dam re-surface, Mandal II consumed a lot of political energy with the HRD minister laying down the ABC of OBCs. Meanwhile Sachar8217;s sachch on Muslim backwardness had L.K. Advani scrambling for his minority appeasement rhetoric and Rajnath Singh rushing for his dhanush as the BJP promised a rerun of Ram Temple II. But there were others who desisted inflammatory rhetoric. Veer Bhadra Mishra, mahant of the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, proved that the weapon of harmony can be a powerful one against terror. In July, it was Mumbai8217;s turn to learn that lesson: 7/11 left it mangled, angry and anxious, but still together.

2006 witnessed many a deepening rift. The Danish cartoons and the Pope8217;s exhumation of a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor8217;s observations saw angry demos by Muslims around the world, even as Israel pulverised Qana and Iraq continued to bleed. And as a grim finale to a bloody year, Saddam Hussein was executed just before it ended. The Iraq war got its first major casualty in the White House. Donald Rumsfeld had to bid a reluctant farewell and George W. Bush felt that sinking quagmire feeling many a time during the year, and not just when Chavez accused him of being Lucifer incarnate on a UN podium. Only Dick Cheney it seems, emerged unscathed. More than one can say for his hunting companion in that famous duckshoot.

It was a year when the 8216;missing link8217; surfaced 8212; a fish that can negotiate terrestrial surfaces, when baby boomers turned 60, when adults turned kids and got consumed by Playstation3, when New York decided to whittle down waistlines by banning trans fats, when Billanthropy became synonymous with corporate generosity and when Google got firewalled by China. It was a year when India and China discovered the virtues of Hindi-Chini buy-buy and the old Silk Route at Nathu La, and Polonium 210 was discovered in the blood stream of a former KGB agent. This will make it into the next Bond epic. Mark my words, Craig.

It was a year of the unexpected written word. Musharraf8217;s In the Line of Fire, became a bestseller almost overnight, as did Kaavya Vishwanathan8217;s 8216;How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life8217;. But the first book was ghostwritten, and the second, guilty of plagiarism. So I suppose one should be grateful to a Orhan Pamuk for his Turkish delights and Kiran Desai for her The Inheritance of Loss, even if some maintained it was the colour her skin that had won her the Booker.

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So will 2007 see us inheriting loss or gain? The next 365 days will answer that. Meanwhile, we can only hope that we are spared our annual trysts with chikungunya, that bird flu will not wing its way back and that Apolocalypto is some years away yet.