Words and Whispers 2007

And so another year ends in the acrid smoke of a post-blast Liaquat Bagh election rally evening.

And so another year ends in the acrid smoke of a post-blast Liaquat Bagh election rally evening. Benazir Bhutto, Daughter of the East, was marked by destiny8217;s suicide bomber. Her assassination symbolised a year when prospects of democracy in Pakistan came under repeated assault, whether it was the dismissal and house arrest of a chief justice or the imposition of an emergency. General Pervez Musharraf became plain President Musharraf, but that did not really change anything in Pakistan.

Somehow, try as we might, we couldn8217;t insulate ourselves from the various sources of instability the world over. The post-assassination violence that destablised Pakistan, made us feel just that bit more uncomfortable in our skins, and who would have imagined that bad housing loans in the US could add the term sub-prime crisis to our daily vocabulary? It was that kind of year, when the world got even smaller and characters like Hill and Huck dominated our news space, even as Bush8217;s poodle scampered out of 10, Downing Street, to be replaced by Gordon. Meanwhile, Vlad got to be acknowledged in some quarters as the Man of the Year.

It was a year of the predator and the macabre. D-5, Sector 31, in a nondescript Noida neighbourhood, turned out to be a House of Horrors, with the bones of little children surfacing in a drain. It stained 2007 with the word Nithari, which came to signify the most debased form of human behaviour. At Virginia Tech, a student used his Glock 9MM semi-automatic to deadly effect by shooting down indiscriminately his fellow students one fine morning. But we no longer had the indulgence of imagining that such incidents didn8217;t happen in our country. The Gurgaon school shootout testified to the churning, changing times. But then it was that sort of year, when terror was just a news bulletin away, whether it was about Glasgow or Hyderabad; whether on the Samjhauta Express or before a Lucknow court, even as blasts from the past reminded us of a hellish March 1993 afternoon in Bombay. The Bombay blasts verdict may have sent Accused No 117 Sanjay Dutt back to jail, but Justice Srikrishna8217;s recommendations on the riots that preceded them continued to fall victim to political amnesia. Ironically, 2007 marked 60 years of international human rights. It was also a year to remember Mr Q. Quattrocchi managed to find his way back to primetime yet again, which says a great deal for the man8217;s indestructibility. We need him it seems, just as we need Narendra Modi, with his chhapan ni chhati and plastic mask, to remind us of our sins of omission and commission. If the US staged a surge in Iraq, so did the saffron forces, ending the year with the triumphs of Gujarat and Himachal.

Politics continued to be the national obsession with new players, like Baba Gandhi throwing himself into the fray with much energy if little success; and old players like Mayawati coming to power for the first time in the country8217;s largest state on her own strength, and L.K. Advani positioning himself firmly as his party8217;s candidate in the race for 7, Race Course. Meanwhile, the present denizen of No 7, Race Course Road, saw his carefully crafted Indo-US n-deal sat upon by the Marxists. But it wasn8217;t a great year for the Left either. Nandigram continued to haunt them throughout the year as indeed the Lajja of its shabby treatment of Taslima Nasreen. But then it was that kind of year, when nobody and nothing could emerge completely unscathed from the hot breath of times marked by Global Warming, a phenomenon that was officially acknowledged by the world and the IPCC. So how large then was your carbon footprint this year?

Memory was big in 2007. We commemorated 1857 and revived the ghosts of Bahadur Shah Zafar and Mangal Pandey. We also marked with due official festivity 60 years of India8217;s Independence, and SMS-ed furiously to get the Taj Mahal acknowledged as a Wonder of the World, going on to take Incredible India right into the somewhat indifferent core of Big Apple.

It was a year that saw pet food subsidised in the national budget Congress ka haath aam kutte ke saath . Nokia batteries overheated while Computerda just froze it. And Shilpa Shetty got the Goody treatment in Celebrity Big Brother and lived famously ever after. It was a year that was big on Indian billionaires who staged a surge of their own, and wedding extravaganzas, whether it was the hurly-burly of the Elizabeth Hurley-Arun Nayyar union or the tinsely-tele tale of the Ash-Abhi marry-thon. After the Billion Blues of the World Cup thrashing, we had our Chak De India moment with the Dhoni team8217;s Twenty20 pyrotechnics. Team India left the Chappell 8212; and Rahul Dravid 8212; behind, and re-discovered a semi-retired Kumble, even as a victorious hockey team continue to ask, why does cricket get all the attention? It8217;s all about, money, honey. Ask the BCCI.

As the tick-tock of the celestial clock steadily moves the hour hand to The End, let8217;s hope that there will be some Om Shanti Om in 2008. Or that at least we won8217;t have to flap around like headless chickens. So it8217;s goodbye, and good luck from me.