The year was almost up and instead of writing up bucket lists and resolutions, and ten equally urgent errands I was sat there watching Spectre because if not Daniel Craig, then who? It’s just another day, guys. Another day preceded by merrymaking and alcohol. And why not! At least my New Years lantern did not burn the tree down, although it was very close. I have a good feeling about 2016.
It’s unfair how western civilization has had a good 200yr head start and we still get the flak for being backward and gender-biased. Yes, we do and I face it to some extent every day. Having said that, it’s more complicated than that. It’s more unbalanced, basic and surprising than what meets the eye. Uncanny how two movies I watched back to back on New Year’s Day had the same scene playing out. Girl and boy are in love, girl needs to make this long journey abroad on her own, boy says ‘marry me before you leave, that’s all I ask’. One movie was set in 1950s Ireland/New York, the other in 2015 Mumbai. And in both movies the girl agrees, because well, she’s in love. The one set in India has a feistier, youthful, modern setting but when it comes down to basic relationship conundrums it equates itself to something fundamentally archaic and resolutely driven by human insecurities, but we tend to generalize and see it as signs of modernity vs. conventional-ism instead. Funny, right? No it’s not. It’s unfair. It’s derivative and grossly pre-judged.
Happy New Year, folks. Unbend a little. See beyond the ‘offence’. See the light that creates the shadows and try and be one.
Priya Goswami 
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