2020 was just dawning! I’m still trying to get a hold of how 2021 ended. But now another ‘new’ year has rolled by and I’m at a loss to understand what just happened.

When years seem to fly past and our hopes and anticipations keep getting higher and higher for the future, it’s important to stop, take a beat and look back at the path we were on.

For me this year was rocky as a railroad but there are some precious memories I want to take with me well into the future. You believe something is about to happen in your life, but a wild current abruptly forms and take you with it all the way to an entirely different side, the one possibility you positively ruled out. You can either fight it, or make the best out of it. The choice is ultimately in your hands. And this one thing, be it 2023 or 2058, will not change. Cheers to unpredictability. Cheers to new normals.

As I’m only beginning to blog, forgive me if I don’t make it more interesting or orderly for the readers. Here I want to share with you some events that grabbed my attention all through the past year.

Art

‘Just stop oil’. These were the words on their shirts when two young climate activists threw contents of Tomato soup cans at Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting, ‘Sunflowers’. They even glued their hands to the wall. This happened in room 43 of London’s National gallery, one of the greatest collection of paintings in the world. I know this isn’t exactly ‘art’ news but it’s one thing that held my attention for a while and leads me to my next topic.

Climate change

Statistics like a rise of 1.15 degree Celsius in the global mean temperature and the melting glaciers in the arctic have been around for a long time. There were loud news about rising sea levels too. But this year I began to feel it firsthand. Weird climates all through the planet. Really hot summer and late winters all beg our attention to aggressive rise in greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.

On a serious note, it might already be too late for us to save the planet. But inaction is the worst form of destruction. We can do our part by planting a tree and simply turning off electrical devices when not in use.

Music

No one can deny the hype that skyrocketed around the release of the movie Ponniyin Selvan I. Surely music composer and recipient of BAFTA, Golden globe, Academy and Grammy awards, A R Rahman’s magic never disappoints. But his music to this movie really had me and still has me hearing it on loop. Even though the movie, to me personally was a bit disappointing and overhyped, the effort on its music was groundbreaking.

Politics

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, there were promises made initially to ‘allow’ women to exercise some of their rights. But as words are simply words, the situation of women quickly worsened and various restrictions placed then under constant threat and supervision. The height of it all hit me when I read that women were banned from long distance travel without a male chaperone. Being banned to travel is a whole new form of freedom?

Movies

Without a second thought, a Tamil movie that pops in my mind is Vikram, directed by Lokesh kanagaraj. I’m not usually a fan of the Action genre, but this had me hooked, in terms of acting, screenplay and the sheer variety in music. The way everything was molded together, simply genius in my opinion. I find every scene carved with utmost love for the plot and the actor. A fanboy’s tribute to his hero.

Series

A die hard fan of the HBO series ‘Game of thrones’, I had pretty high expectations for its prequel, ‘House of the Dragon’, which happens nearly 200 years before the events of Game of thrones. The series is set in a period when the Targaryens were extremely powerful. And they justify that power with a number of dragons to their side. The locations and cinematography brings us back to the epic, making us feel like we never left. A bonus treat for all GOT fans.

Science

The Hubble telescope has been one of our most powerful equipments ever, to try and understand the universe. It’s known for its stunning images of distant stars and providing major breakthroughs in astrophysics, like decoding the history of the expanding universe. But in December 2022, a more powerful telescope, The James Webb Space Telescope has been launched by NASA. The sky’s not the limit, not even the space beyond, however vast that is!

Sports

An absolute treat to football lovers happened in December 2022. The FIFA World Cup 2022. Argentina won, beating France at its penalty shootout. The thrills and chills the match brought, has rightfully earned it ‘The best World Cup ever’ tag.

However, one more sports event had me reminiscing my childhood, when I would be looking for the sports section in whichever newspaper I could get my hands on. Roger Federer’s retirement. 20 grand slam titles and 103 tournament wins later, the legend walks home proud. His final match when he partnered with Rafael Nadal at the fifth edition of the Laver cup held much entertainment. It made memories and brought memories up, long forgotten.

Business

I won’t pretend I follow much news in business. But Elon Musk, the world’s richest person taking over twitter for a whopping $44 bn raised quite a sensation. The only thing that turned more heads was the ensuing firing that took place. From top executives to sales workers, Twitter has lost almost 5000 employees since Musk takeover.

Altogether, 2022, I believe was only a grand preview of 2023. The war is till ongoing. The threat of job cuts and recession looms larger. Global warming quietly gets into our daily lives.

But still, I believe humanity holds the key to change it all. We’d better use it now, for the good of our future generations. It’s not fair to let them suffer in a place far worse than the one we were born into. Let us start with little steps. With a little more conviction.

Happy new year 2023!