As the year 2015 wound to a close, I let my memory run through the high and low points of year for India. When I did, I found this one word coming to me, again and again, which I found to be the thread that bound the events of the year.
And the word of the year is ‘wapsi’ or ‘return’.
In the political space, the year started with AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal ‘returning’ to power in Delhi after assuring the people that, this time, he was here to stay. And the year ended with Nitesh Kumar ‘returning’ (from a self-imposed sabbatical) to claim the chief ministership of Bihar after his brainchild ‘Maha Ghatbandhan’ swept the assembly polls in November.
In a first for the carmaker, Volkswagen agreed to the ‘return’ of 3.23 lakh cars it had sold in India, which allegedly used software that cheat the country’s emission norms. Das Auto?!!
Meanwhile, Apple ‘returned’ with yet another hideously over-priced and hyped up model, iphone 6 s, at the stiffest ever price tag (Rs. 65,000-75,000) for a mobile phone in India.
Reliance Jio’s soft launch of its of 4G services in December marked the ‘return’ of Mukesh Ambani to his dream telecom venture, a decade after he had lost Reliance Infocomm to his younger brother Anil, in the partition of the Reliance group assets in 2005.
The Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu also ‘returned’ with yet another of his grandiose dream projects, a la ‘Cyberabad’– this time to build the slimmed down state’s new capital city, Amaravathi at an estimated cost of about Rs. 27,000 crores....(for those who can't fathom this number, remembering it as only one-fourth the cost of the loss to the ex-chequer in the 2G spectrum scam can help)
On the flip side, food price inflation ‘returned’ with a vengeance after a brief sabbatical, and the prices of pulses skyrocketed with zero help from ISRO (sorry, couldn't resist that PJ :P)
On the positive side were Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s welcome initiatives to ‘return’ Indian Railways to its days of past glory, one of which was to rope in Ratan Tata to spearhead innovations and reforms in the Railways.
The year also saw a dizzying $9 billion being pumped into Indian startup ventures by risk-crazy investors, in the hope of seeing big ‘returns’ (read valuations) in future.
Sadly, but inevitably, the year also saw the ‘return’ of India’s most loved, People’s President, APJ
Kalam to his celestial pavilion.
The intellectual elite of the country took the ‘r’ word to a new level, when they started to ‘return’ their awards and titles - which they had received either from a previous Government or a Government-aided body - in protest of what they felt was rising intolerance in the country. It is a different story that their act failed to fluster anybody other than the neo-loud Indian media which used up precious airtime to discuss the issue ad-nauseum!!
Even as the Congress Party tried its best to ‘return’ all the bills tabled in Parliament unpassed, Indians desperately waited for their PM Modi to ‘return’ to his homeland from his endless overseas tours to address the burning issues at home.
As if to counter all attempts by the right-wing fringe elements to flare up communal unrest, the Muslim community in Chennai turned out in large numbers to volunteer for the mammoth relief work
undertaken during and after the Chennai floods, thus ‘returning’ hopes of communal harmony in our society.
Post the launch of its hugely successful MOM mission, ISRO ‘returned’ with a bang to successfully launch a record 21 satellites into space, of which 17 were for foreign nations.
After punishing several hungry children and lazy bachelors during its brief absence from our p(a)late, Maggi, the queen of junk foods, ‘returned’ to the hit list of national cuisine towards the end of the year!
And finally, what sweetened my ‘returns’ story was that our IT department deigned to assess my 2015-16 IT returns on time and actually ‘ return’ some of the extra tax I had paid last year!!! Yippee!!
And the word of the year is ‘wapsi’ or ‘return’.
In the political space, the year started with AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal ‘returning’ to power in Delhi after assuring the people that, this time, he was here to stay. And the year ended with Nitesh Kumar ‘returning’ (from a self-imposed sabbatical) to claim the chief ministership of Bihar after his brainchild ‘Maha Ghatbandhan’ swept the assembly polls in November.
In a first for the carmaker, Volkswagen agreed to the ‘return’ of 3.23 lakh cars it had sold in India, which allegedly used software that cheat the country’s emission norms. Das Auto?!!
Meanwhile, Apple ‘returned’ with yet another hideously over-priced and hyped up model, iphone 6 s, at the stiffest ever price tag (Rs. 65,000-75,000) for a mobile phone in India.
Reliance Jio’s soft launch of its of 4G services in December marked the ‘return’ of Mukesh Ambani to his dream telecom venture, a decade after he had lost Reliance Infocomm to his younger brother Anil, in the partition of the Reliance group assets in 2005.
The Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu also ‘returned’ with yet another of his grandiose dream projects, a la ‘Cyberabad’– this time to build the slimmed down state’s new capital city, Amaravathi at an estimated cost of about Rs. 27,000 crores....(for those who can't fathom this number, remembering it as only one-fourth the cost of the loss to the ex-chequer in the 2G spectrum scam can help)
On the flip side, food price inflation ‘returned’ with a vengeance after a brief sabbatical, and the prices of pulses skyrocketed with zero help from ISRO (sorry, couldn't resist that PJ :P)
On the positive side were Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s welcome initiatives to ‘return’ Indian Railways to its days of past glory, one of which was to rope in Ratan Tata to spearhead innovations and reforms in the Railways.
The year also saw a dizzying $9 billion being pumped into Indian startup ventures by risk-crazy investors, in the hope of seeing big ‘returns’ (read valuations) in future.
Sadly, but inevitably, the year also saw the ‘return’ of India’s most loved, People’s President, APJ
Kalam to his celestial pavilion.
The intellectual elite of the country took the ‘r’ word to a new level, when they started to ‘return’ their awards and titles - which they had received either from a previous Government or a Government-aided body - in protest of what they felt was rising intolerance in the country. It is a different story that their act failed to fluster anybody other than the neo-loud Indian media which used up precious airtime to discuss the issue ad-nauseum!!
Even as the Congress Party tried its best to ‘return’ all the bills tabled in Parliament unpassed, Indians desperately waited for their PM Modi to ‘return’ to his homeland from his endless overseas tours to address the burning issues at home.
As if to counter all attempts by the right-wing fringe elements to flare up communal unrest, the Muslim community in Chennai turned out in large numbers to volunteer for the mammoth relief work
undertaken during and after the Chennai floods, thus ‘returning’ hopes of communal harmony in our society.
Post the launch of its hugely successful MOM mission, ISRO ‘returned’ with a bang to successfully launch a record 21 satellites into space, of which 17 were for foreign nations.
After punishing several hungry children and lazy bachelors during its brief absence from our p(a)late, Maggi, the queen of junk foods, ‘returned’ to the hit list of national cuisine towards the end of the year!
And finally, what sweetened my ‘returns’ story was that our IT department deigned to assess my 2015-16 IT returns on time and actually ‘ return’ some of the extra tax I had paid last year!!! Yippee!!
A very entertaining read :D Love the humour in your writing!
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
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