As the Year 2024 AD draws to a close, it is safe to say as a collective, humankind has moved on from the challenges of the Covid pandemic. As we bid farewell to the year going by, time to reflect on and recall a few of the memories to hold on (or maybe not)
1. Word of the Year
Brain Rot was chosen as Oxford’s Word of the Year – the phenomenon of damage to mental health from an ever-increasing consumption of social media with its echo chambers, endless doomscrolling. All of us are victims of it only the impact varies. Its really time to get off the screen!
2. The Geopolitical Chessboard
It has been more than a decade since the last recognized country, South Sudan, came into existence – relatively such a prolonged period of stability in the global political map has been unprecedented. However, this balance is certainly in threat. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is in its 3rd year, Israel has multiple battle fronts open in the Middle East with both state and non-state actors. Simultaneously, regional skirmishes continue to flare up in various parts of the world. On the other hand, many governments changed either democratically or were thrown out.
Regime changes in Syria, Bangladesh, India-Canada diplomatic stand-off, Iran firing missiles into Pakistan, Myanmar-Bangladesh border clashes, Assassination attempts in Europe & USA, South Korean President declaring martial law and getting impeached - the list seems endless. The whole global geopolitical landscape seems to be a tinderbox waiting to explode. And the people in-charge at best seem unwilling to prevent the explosion or worse adding fuel to the fire.
And the weapons in the war games have expanded - from sanctions and diplomatic cutoffs to missiles and exploding pagers!
3. The Bureaucratic Masterstroke
Donald Trump has announced the creation of DOGE – the Department of Government Efficiency – an advisory body to streamline the government’s functioning! And there are TWO people in-charge of it. The makers of Yes Minister must be kicking themselves for not coming up with this storyline. Somewhere, irony is having a hearty laugh!
4. We Are The Champions
It came home and in grand style. Multiple players in the Candidates, followed by both Open & Women’s Team winning the Chess Olympiad titles, Arjun Erigiasi breaking into elite 2800 ratings club, a 3-year old Anish Sarkar becoming a rated player. All culminating in Gukesh becoming the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion.
Not many sports have had such a success. Chess certainly has been the showstopper in a year in which India won the Men’s T20 World Cup and Neeraj Chopra further cemented his status as India’s GOAT sportsperson.
5. The Fine Margins
Battling back from hell and then being thrown back in – what a tragedy it was for Vinesh Phogat. A turbulent build-up to the Games, a draw which couldn’t have been tougher, a win for the ages, reaches the Final. The stage was set for a fairytale finish even Disney would have been proud of. And the next morning it all crumbled down in the most brutal fashion, being disqualified for being unable to cut down the weight by a meagre 100g. That was sports at its cruelest.
6. Sporting (Non-)Performance of the Year
Raygun’s Breaking display at the Paris Games. Enough to ensure that Breaking doesn’t come into Olympics discussion in the near future.
7. The Mt. Everest moment – Video Game edition
Tetris was finally conquered, just 34 years since it first came into being. The seemingly endless game was finally beaten by a 13 year old.
8. The Crowd is on Strike moment
One fine July morning, there was a global Microsoft outage. People couldn’t log into their systems, resulting in work shutting down. Some turned to the old-school pen & paper workaround but things still stayed slow. While this was a scenario straight out of any cyber-attackers’ wildest dreams, the cause was simple - a faulty update being rolled out.
9. The e-queues
The online scramble for concert tickets (Coldplay, Diljt Dosanjh)—and the torrent of hilarious complaints that followed—seems to have made people forget the alternative. At least it’s better than standing in a physical queue, exposed to all the elements, getting jostled around, worrying about pickpockets, or facing the occasional lathi charge!.
10. What is Art?
A question which remains unanswered. After all, if a banana taped to a wall can be sold for $ 6.2 Million, then it raises some existential questions for “artists”. [Aside - the banana was eaten, so now also has its place in the costliest food list, alongwith the two Papa Jones pizza which were bought for 10,000 bitcoins!]
11. And Finally from the animal world
There was Moo Deng, a baby pygmy hippo. But the pride of place must go to a pair of brawling koalas stopping traffic! (Video)
So, this was a bit of 2024. Wishing all readers a Very Happy New Year 2025!
