The closing ceremony of 2008...

It has been long, since you came new,
Bundled with blessings for a countable few
As you depart tonight with the year's last dew
Up comes the morning Sun, with hopes and dreams anew..

.....And as the horizon juggles between sunset and sunrise, night and morning, 2008 and 2009, we refuse to be harsh to the year bidding goodbye. Save for the handful of smiles and blessings it has bestowed, on this last night of its stay with us, we readily fail to notice the blues through which it has made us suffer, the tears it has brought about within us. Though the apprehension over mass killings at random corners of the country fails to get blurred by a coveted mission to the moon, a 50,000 pound valued booker couldn't help the global market crashdown and the first gold medal couldn't moderate our grief over losing Dada, still we owe our bags full of gratitude to the year bygone for the tad bit of goodness it has done for us...a booker prize, an Olympic gold medal, victory of the Democrats...and yet a few unnoticed fleeting smiles it fruitfully brought about for a while or two among us.

On a personal note, it has been less of flower beds and more of thorns, being the most challenging year in my girlhood of eighteen years.
And despite taking him miles away from me, it eventually kept bringing us together.

And as 2008 wraps itself up...we, in our own accord, spare another hope and tear for Mumbai, Guwahati, Delhi, Agartala, Ahmedabad...and unconditionally thank all the Abhinav Bindras and Aravind Adigas around the world who, amidst all this, made an exchange of smiles possible between us.

P.S.- Happy New Year to everyone out there. Have a great year ahead.