The Year That Was

कल फ़िर इक सुबह ऐसी आयेगी 

दिन नहीं बदलेंगे, तारीख बदल जायेगी

It happens like this only - dates and years keep changing, days don't. These commoners think that by saying a few happy new year wishes, their days will also change. Haa...!!

People want to believe that 2011 was specially bad because a lot of great personalities passed away. Osama Bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi, for example. Hosni Mubarak didn't die but at least thrown out and this has entailed more than normal bloodshed in Egypt. Well, Osama and Gadhafi were there for population control and now, Post-Mubarak Egypt and Ante-Assad Syria are doing that job gleefully. However, demise of Donald Neilson, the English serial killer, made me specially sad. I think the English should dedicate their killing of EU countries 'serially' to the 'sacred' memory of Neilson. And Kim Jong-il - what had that innocent poor man did except tormenting the world to die such a young age of 69 (nice age to die BTW)!! So this was all where the bad stuff stops.

But 2011 had a lot of consolation to offer. For example, a 'Pirate of Silicon Valley' too passed away - he stole designs, abused people, charged for free stuff, overpriced paid stuff, and yet, thr morons who could never even dream of buying an APPLE product wept their eyes out. And undoubtedly, the worthiest news was the sad, lonely, and away from India death of Mother F***** Hussain - the bastard painter!!

However, irony lived closer home than one may imagine. People wrote long obituaries for Dev Anand, who copied Gregory Peck for long and then, was dead for about 20 years now. Well, after making 'Awwal Number' in 1990, all he made was poor cinema and great efforts at money laundering. That reminds me of our marketing prof, who told us a story. He asked his guide about a senior colleague and got a reply that he passed away a year back. When he contested the information by citing his meeting two days back, he was told that that senior colleague hasn't published a thing in a year; and hence, dead!

Anyhow, there were some genuine losses to mankind (and womankind too, gosh these Janana Aandolan wallas). For example, Shammi Kappor, who was one of the most original actors of Hindi cinema and was active till very last breath. Same goes for Pandit Bheemsen Joshi, who was absolutely lovable in looks and divine in singing. I personally felt sad for Vaclav Havel also, for no particular rhyme or reason, given the fact that I am almost unaware of the details of his contributions. Although Adam Gondwi, the famed Urdu poet was also inactive in the last few days but he was the last soul standing for Urdu poetry's progressive revolutionary spirit. And his deep UP, Lucknow, Gonda connections... I felt more bad than sad for the penury and apathy that surrounded his demise.

Anyways, people died before 2011 and a lot died in 2011. Others were not so lucky. Wish you more luck in coming years.