Happy New Year!!!

         Another Day, another Year, another decade passes away. It was quite an eventful year marked by a plethora of unfortunate events – Corruption, Inflation, Chelsea winning the EPL – this year had it all. Even the Fourth Estate ended the year with mud on its face. However, despite all the negatives the year ended positively in most areas. A positive vote for governance from the caste conundrum that is Bihar, was reassuring to say the least. The Judiciary (and the CAG) provided the much needed scrutiny that the media failed to provide while the opposition surprised us by showing that it still has the bite needed to provide a stiff challenge to the Grand Old Party of Indian Politics. Finally, the year ended with India reigning supreme on the Test Rankings and Manchester United lording over the EPL. The Sporting world enters 2011 in refreshingly fine shape.

         If I have to pick one person or object or incident etc. to represent 2010, it has to be Twitter. The advent of Cable Television marked the beginning of the decline for the newspaper. The speed of the visual medium was the USP which allowed it to defeat the mighty pen. Incisive, fact based journalism with a 24 hour lag was no match for Know-It-All anchors hysterically debating the fallout of events as they happened across the globe. Well, 2010 was all about the return (or atleast the beginning of it) of the written word. Twitter had taken the USP of News Channels and turned it on them. It allowed users to pursue whichever topic interested them, from whichever source they wanted, from whichever place suited them. So while the Media Barons blanked out ‘uncomfortable stories’ like Radiagate, there were quite a few uncomfortable questions raised by the Twitizens for which there were no answers. Long Live the age of the Internet.

         Another remarkable incident this year was the coincidence that took place on 19th December, 2010 (as pointed out by a friend). Two legends who have made a habit out of creating history, did just that on the very same day. While Sachin Tendulkar chose the fateful day to become the only batsman in test history to score 50 Test centuries, Sir Alex Ferguson eclipsed Sir Matt Busby to become the longest serving manager at Old Trafford. These two larger than life individuals, who have come to represent perfection in their chosen sport, who reached their own personal milestones this year will be looking towards 2011 with an eye on achieving things which will bring a sense of completeness to their careers. While the Master Blaster will seek to add the World Cup to his otherwise exhaustive list of trophies, the Scottish Genius will seek to bring a 19th League Title to Old Trafford cementing Manchester United’s claim as the most successful club in English Football. As was the case with Sir Don, sport can be a very cruel master. But surely in the case of these two legends, it will choose to make an exception.

         Thus, with 2010 ending on a hopeful note, the first day of the fresh year began with a fresh frame of mind. However , ‘The Masthead Of India’ sure knows how to puncture my mood as I found Chetan Bhagat and his stupid smirk staring back at me as soon as I opened their Editorial. I guess my hate for the newspaper will continue this year too (though they made up for it with a wonderful piece in the Sunday Times by Gurcharan Das). Also, on the last day of the year I decided to make up a resolution, “ I will not procrastinate in the new year as much as I did in the last one”. But then again, I thought I will give this year a miss and keep this resolution for the following year. ;)

         Finally, by now I believe all you guys would have gotten over the hangover of late night parties. Hence, leaving you all with a nice article to read and ponder over here. Happy New Year, Folks!!!