The Year That Was

Yet another year has passed. The year began with ghastly images of the death and destruction left behind by the Boxing Day tsunami. And at the end of the year, only 20% of the tsunami - affected has got its shelters back. Meanwhile, Sania shone, first in Australia and then in Hyderabad, Dubai, Wimbledon and New York. The Indian cricket team lost the one day series to their Pakistani neighbors at home.

Elsewhere, after the euphoria of Liverpool’s win in Europe died down, 7/7 shook London and the stiff British upper lip was not stiff anymore. All Muslims were not terrorists, but all terrorists were Muslims. London returned with a bang, bagging the bid for the 2012 Olympics. The England cricket team won the Ashes, but not many are optimistic about their ability to retain it next winter.

The French rejected the EU constitution. And a few months later, Paris burned with race crimes. More cars were destroyed in Paris suburbs than GM could produce in Detroit in a day. The auto major, along with Ford and Chrysler suffered losses as Toyota and Nissan beat the Americans in their own auto garage. The American optimism was further dented by Katrina, Rita and mildly by Wilma. These female namesakes were the most problematic since Monica and Paula troubled a certain Mr. Bill Clinton.

Indians had their fair share of deluges - first Mumbai and then Chennai. At least we managed the flooding better than the Americans. Chennai is now facing problem of plenty of water, after being on the fringes for the last four summers. Another place that finds the proverbial problem of plenty is the BCCI. Somebody in the BCCI felt that Greg Chappell email deserved a mention on its notice board, verbatim. Sourav Ganguly was ditched and taken back in the team according to the whims of a Marathwada MP – minister turned BCCI president and an ex – wicket keeper whose clown – like antics were imitated by Javed Miandad 13 years ago in Sydney.

Meanwhile, Javed Miandad’s daughter married the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s son in Dubai, right under the noses of secret agents from India and the CIA. The latter continued to hog the limelight for all the wrong reasons. WMD is an old story now. It is now about flying the terrorists through the European airstrips. Talking about flying, GateGourmet strike at Heathrow affected many. Skyrocketing crude oil prices took care of the rest. All this happened while Iraq continued to see blood bath everyday and Afghanistan started harvesting poppy.Iraq, Volcker and the crude oil triumvirate nailed Mr. Natwar Singh.

The Indian politicians were caught accepting money to ask and also not to ask questions in the Parliament. But, the thick skinned ones sang the Billy Joel number, “We didn’t start the fire, it’s always been burning, since the world’s been turning…”

Peter Drucker passed away after making people believe in the philosophy of management for the last 60 years. The Greenspan era is heading to a close. As is this fairly long post, about a year that deserved one.