Recap 2008: End-of-the-year Nostalgia

20 years from now, what will be the first thing that comes to your mind when you come across something dated 2008? Besides the fact that that 'something' is no longer in its warranty period/edible, what will it be? Of course, it may be something personal, but how am I to know that. All I can do is list out a few events which I think 2008 will be remembered for. In no particular order (or rather the order in which they come to my mind, thus dependent on their importance, their taking place in January/December and whether they fall in my areas of interest):

• The year of the meltdown
  Sadly, the first thing that comes to mind is the Economic Recession. The time when every other news item/advertisement reminds you "in these hard times"... But then, every other decade has had its recession. Let's just wait for the global economy to rise back and hope we ride the boom in 2009.
  
  
  
  
  Alternately: The year the stock markets fell, The year of the mortgage crisis,  The year the investment bubble-burst, The year of the Recession etc.
  
  
• The year of Heath Ledger
  I could have bulleted it as the year The Dark Knight was released, but this is just too close to my heart, as to anyone's who's seen this guy play 'The Man who laughs' the way nobody ever has. On a related note, I plan to blog about the movie as well as The Joker's philosophy in the coming year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Alternately: The year of The Joker, The year Heath Ledger died, Why So Serious?

• The year of Obama
  
  2008 will always be remembered, by me and the rest of the world, as the year Barack Obama was elected President, of a nation half-way across the globe from where I'm writing this. 2009 will see the Presidential Inaugration of Obama. This makes 2008 the year we all said, Yes We Can. I will be blogging on Obama pretty soon as well.
  

  Alternatively: The year we said Yes We Can, The year Obama became President, The year Bush left the White House, The year Hillary almost became President, and quite possibly: The year Obama First became President.
   
• Mumbai Attacks
  No one can ever forget the attack on India's largest city that took place on 26/11, often dubbed as India's 9/11. While the crisis was massive, with 10 coordinated attacks taking place in the city, they were rather dwarfed by the reactions to the crisis. A range of resignations and political changes, and almost insurgent movements my civilians. International reaction for the attacks was also widespread. Media coverage highlighted the use of new media and internet social networking tool in spreading information about the attacks, observing that internet coverage, especially the blogosphere, was often ahead of more traditional media sources.
  
  Alternatively: The year of 26/11, The year of the Mumbai Hostage Crisis, The year of Taj, The year we realised it was enough
  
  
• The Year of the Iraqi Shoe
  Oh, nobody can forget Muntadhar-Al-Zaiydi, though nobody knows how its spelt either. The guy who did was millions of people in Iraq, in the United States, and across the world wanted to do. Though it's a pity Bush dodged the farewell kiss, and quite quickly at that.
  
  
  Alternatively: The year Dubya got his farewell kiss, The year Iraq thanked Dubya with all its sole, The year of THE shoe

Of course, these are not the only major events of 2008. I am just predicting that these are the ones that'll be remembered throughout.

Now for those for which 2008 will NOT be remembered: (in no particular order, as before)

• Our Olympic Medalists
  Nobody cries about not winning medals at the Olympics more than India. No one celebrates their victories and joins their orkut fan clubs more quickly than us. And nobody forgets them the way we do too.
  
  
  How many medals did India win at the Beijing Olympics? And which ones? And who won them, and in which events? Was he a colonel or a major who won that Silver last Olympics at Athens? And what was his name? And did you have to use Google to check any of this out?

  I think I need not say any further.
  
  
• Possibly, the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks:
  While we are all up in arms against the politicians at the moment, aren't we going to vote the same bunch of goons back to power again? Not something that I hope, but expect.
  
  
• Chandrayaan, and the record-setting 10 satellites sent into orbit with a single launch by ISRO.
  The next time you complain about India lagging behind in technology, try sounding C-H-A-N-D-R-A-Y... in your mind.
  
  
• Ghajini
  Sorry guys, for bringing this up again, but I just couldn't resist all the forgetting/amnesia punny situation. I hope we DO FORGET this one. I also hope I forget certain scenes from Harold and Kumar's escape from Guantanamo Bay. While the aforementioned The Dark Knight holds the record for being the highest-grossing movie of the year, this one is the most Gross movie I've ever seen.
  
  
• I'm sure there's some more, but I seem to have forgotten already.

So there you are, 2008 for you. The new year's eve is also seen as a time when people take stock of their lives, but I prefer doing that on my Birthday, which falls in the same week anyways.

My resolutions will be coming up on my Birthday. You make sure you keep up with yours atleast till the next weekend. Let's try make this world a better place to live, and we'll see what we've got by this time next year. With these thoughts, I wish everyone reading this, a very prosperous 2009. Happy new year, everyone.

For the last time this year, I bid you, Peace...