Welcome 2024. And thank you for getting us this far, 2023

2023's peak fashion moment on desi shores arrived when Akshata Murty accompanied her husband Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, on his trip to India. (File)

Now that 2024 is upon us, ’tis the season to look back. To sum up the year gone by and weigh it for sad and happy, good and bad. We know that India overtook China in population. Wars are raging and Covid is said to be back, though no one is testing anymore. ‘Work from home’ has moved into office premises, so ties are back. And real estate prices are seeing a high-rise again.

There are some who wail, ‘If the second early Roman king Numa Pompilius had not invented the calendar, there would have been no January 1 to be hung over on.’ Then there are those who just won’t dwell on bad news during flashbacks. As ABBA once sang, ‘I don't wanna talk about things we've gone through. Though it's hurting me, now it's history…’ The normal reflex is to shrug off the old and get on with the new. Let’s read up on what our horoscopes are chirping about and stock up our soul with resolutions!

The ghost of Mrs Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has stopped possessing Indian moms. They no longer say, ‘A single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' Tinder, Grinder, Raya and other dating apps engender much mating, but rarely matrimony. No one says ‘one-night stand’ anymore; people these days hook up.

The peak fashion moment on desi shores arrived when Akshata Murty accompanied her husband Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, on his trip to India. Her clothes were counted, catalogued and copied. Clothes post-Covid have been sliding towards comfort, making parties resemble sleepovers. Kaftans, loose linen pajamas, trackpants and matching co-ords are in. The slept-in look has at last arrived.

Malayalam movies still ruled the screen: Iratta, Kaathal – The Core, Purusha Pretham… Bollywood was a little less memorable. Dream Girl 2 was a nightmare, The Archies was strange and Animal was we don’t know what. Rocky aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani was an explosive amalgamation of loud colours, fashion, musical hits and the Delhi vibe. Barbie and Oppenheimer did play side by side in theatres like almost a boy-girl thing.

Deep Purple came, Trevor Noah went. The world of literature continued to turn its pages. If Spare was a memoir by Prince Harry that went whine whine whine, The Fraud by Zadie Smith was historical fiction called a ‘Dickensian delight’ by one reviewer. In India many first-time women writers burst upon the scene – Radhika Iyengar, Sohini Chattopadhyay, Devika Rege… Anita Nair, Anuja Chauhan and Anjum Hasan wrote exciting new books. Neelam Saran Gour won the Sahitya Akademi award for Requiem in Raga Janki while Twinkle Khanna’s Welcome to Paradise was declared a bestseller.

Kiara Advani married Sidharth Malhotra, and Parineeti Chopra married Raghav Chadha, so that we got two sets of sangeet, mehndi and happy bride and groom pics. And just when the paparazzi had given up on any baby sightings, there was Raha Kapoor, the offspring of Alia and Ranbir! We can all now proceed to the next year with smug smiles.

Happy New Year 2024. (Photo by Abhinav Sharma via Pexels)