And the Awards goes to…Part I

Well it is that time of the year when you look back and say these were the best and worst of the lot. I am making a personal list of the best and worst for the year of the incidents that happened in India. Official disclaimers apply.

Burst of the year

Goes to the cloudburst on July 26th at Mumbai. How it rained that weekend in Mumbai. Initially it was fun to see so much of water. Then we heard news that the trains in Central and Western Line had been stopped due to excessive rains. I was having coffee at the coffee bay in my office when we happened to look out of the window to see cars and vans shaking in the winds and water pouring like never before. That convinced me to stay over at the office and I am telling you I am glad I did that. Mumbai was drowned but the attitude and the spirit of the people in the city floated to survive.

Change of State of the year

Happened in a state called Bihar. Laloo Prasad Yadav fooled all the people of the state and the country for 15 long years. The bluff was finally called by the same people who voted him to power. It should go as the single most important change in the political history of Bihar. Nitish Kumar, the new CM has a hell of a job in getting the state back to the levels of its counterparts. Hope he wins the battles and wars, in cleansing the state of its backwardness.

Flair in the Air of the year

Kingfisher Airlines is voted as the airline of the year for the kind of service it provided to the customer. It started defining new trends and standards in the industry. In-flight entertainment wrote new chapters on the Indian sky. The year saw the sprouting of a number of airlines, flying to cities which I never knew had an airport in the first place. India started traveling like crazy. To give an example, if your flight from Delhi to Bangalore got cancelled on the 24th of December (mine almost did), then the next one to Bangalore is on the 28th. The only other alternative for you would be to take a unreserved ticket in a train coz the trains are also completely booked atleast a month in advance.

Buying your customer award of the year

Goes to the Times of India for their new tabloid in Mumbai, called Mumbai Mirror. With competition catching up with them in the form of DNA and HT, they decided to eat into the Mid-day market by launching Mumbai Mirror. And how do they make people buy their newspaper, well if you are caught with the paper by the company sales people, you get a gift. And this came with the regular TOI free for the first couple of months. How people used to queue up in front of the Mirror sales people in the stations to get their gift, before hopping into the trains.

Year end publication of the year

India Today pips Outlook and the Week to this, with an anniversary issue that tracks their 30 long years in the media. Well it has a nice chronology of events on an year on year basis. Makes for a lot of interesting read. India Today has been there and done it all till the last 10 years, when Outlook came and toppled them in their own territory.

Footballer of the year

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind on this award. Ronaldinho is miles ahead of any active footballer, yes even Zidane, when it comes to displaying footballing skills on the field in the 90 minutes, being creative in his passing, scoring goals dribbling past a pack of defenders and the goalie or when it comes to being his modest self when accepting contracts with clubs. The FIFA Footballer of the year for the second time, European footballer of the year, winning hands down this time. He is one player, whom you would want to watch staying awake late in the night. Clubs and countries beware, he is getting better by the day…

Change in screen award of the year (Bollywood)

Goes to all the fresh ideas that were tried out by Bollywood this year. Starting with Iqbal, a Nagesh Kukoonoor movie, that moved everyone who heard the voice of the character. Movies like Yahaan, Sehar, Sarkar that were different from the usual chocolate love affair genre. Realistic movies, like Apaharan impressed the critic as well as the common viewer. And the hindi actor who stood out was of course the junior AB.

The rest of the list in the next post...

~sujith