It's confirmed - we live in interesting times and thank God for that! We belong to a generation that has seen a few defining moments of our history - the end of the cold war, the collapse of USSR, the fall of the Berlin wall, 9/11, the Asian tsunami, the rise of the Internet and the "flattening" of the world, the phenomenon of BPO's, call centres and new words like "Bangalored", the turn of the millenium, two wars in Iraq, a demolition in Afghanistan, massacres in Rwanda and Serbia/Bosnia, jokes like "shock and awe", erosion of human rights concerns, panic about the environment and the overall decay of political, judicial and legislative systems. While wars are nothing new, the last few international conflicts have been so one-sided and blatantly selfish, it only underlines the fact that we rarely learn from our history and continue repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

More recently we saw Benazir Bhutto falling prey to a terrorist/assassin, the fallout of a system she helped nurture not so long ago. As Pakistan slips slowly but surely into the abyss, one can't help but prophesise a similiar fate for the grandmaster himself - the General who has recently given up his uniform. The frankenstein created by them is coming home to roost and no one seems capable of stopping it. Having done almost nothing to deserve becoming a pin-up model for bleeding hearts while alive, in death Benazir has succeeded in becoming a liberal-secular martyr, and we now wait with bated breath for her son to finish school so he can lead the largest political party in the world's 2nd most populous Muslim state, while another ex-exilee rubs his hands in glee at the unfortunate turn of events falling nicely into his lap. That is, until he can stay out of Jail.

On our side of the border we saw Modi, a man pilloried for his past inaction romp home in an exhibition of vibrant democracy or communal polarisation, depending on your viewpoint. We deserve the leaders we get since it is us who bring them to power, and Gujarat, when faced with the TINA option (There Is No Alternative) chose someone who perhaps symbolises the best and worst of our polity.

A direct fallout of Modi's rise has been the strident "liberal" press succeeding in casting Hindutva under the same net as Nazism. This attempt began with a "rath yatra", peaked at the Babri Masjid and Modi's rise gave them the new poster boy they needed, giving birth to terms like "hindu fundamentalists" and "hindu extremists", previously the sole reserve of another community. How the hell did Hindutva become a bad word? A Canadian by the name of Yann Martel summed up what it is to be a Hindu and how one knows one is a Hindu in just one beautiful paragraph in his award-winning "Life of Pi". When a Canadian can sum it up so well, how the hell did we forget? Instead we fall prey to these pseudo-secularists who insist that being liberal is all about appeasement and pandering to minorities while constantly running down any voice that might oppose such a point of view. Someone new to Indian peculiarities might have mistaken the tone on some TV channels during the runup to the Gujrat elections as the voice of the nation. The secular media were in such a panic-ridden tizzy, it seemed that Modi was actually Osama in disguise. I will never try to defend Modi; no defense for the indefensible; but at the same time I am also amazed at the catastrophic predictions of psephologist turned political analysts who have their own private agendas. While a free press might have always been a mirage, Americanism has finally succeeded in tinting every point of view - You are either with us or against us!

So what does 2008 have in store for us? From the look of things, more or less the same that 2007 held. The sensex will reach greater heights, the common man be pushed down to deeper lows, politicians will continue bickering, upcoming general elections will set agendas and the promise of the future will sacrifice our now, ensuring that we benefit from neither, the cricket team will continue to alternate between exasperation and ecstasy, India Inc. will succeed in prolonging the mirage that all is well while flashpoints like Nandigram and Narmada will drift into our collective peripheral vision before disappearing entirely, we will celebrate the immense wealth created by the Ambanis and the Mittals while a toothless 53 year old grandmother will trudge across 15 km of sand and stones to fill an earthen pot of water somewhere in Rajasthan, Taslima will be defended citing freedom of speech, Hussain will be vandalised against the same principle, while Karunanidhi will continue his vile diatribe and will be accomodated so as not to disturb the status quo at the centre. In all, not so different from 2007!

The year end did come with a silver lining in the form of Taare Zameen Par. Aamir Khan's directorial debut should be made compulsory viewing in schools across the country for teachers and students alike. A poignant and moving tale simply told had grown men in tears across the nation, showing us once again that no one can do it like Aamir does.

Ring out the old and bring in the new might apply across the globe, but we will recycle, reuse and regurgitate - Chak De India! Happy 2008 everyone!!