In one way, it was a hell of a year. And yet, in tune with looking at most years in retrospect, it was a hellish year. A lot of our scrolling time was taken over by the Indian #MeToo movement making all the right noises, the news of Section 377 being read down (woohoo!), and celebrity weddings with budgets-gone-bonkers. It was kinda spectacularly miserable as well, with bhakts, bros and the biggest boner the world has ever seen, all unleashed on us in quick succession. When Oxford Dictionary chose ‘Toxic’ as the word of the year, they kinda got it bang on.
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To make sense of it all, we invited some of our favourite people, whose works we admire, to share their best and worst bits about 2018. Turns out, celebrities are kinda just like us in our hating and loving.Yay: Firstly, #Metoo was a watershed moment hopefully leading to a generational change, but it also lay bare how appalling the status-quo really is. Also, BJP losing the elections where citizens wrestled some democratic agency back but expected BJP to take it up a notch for the 2019 elections.Nay: Some of the accounts from #MeToo were absolutely devastating and present how bleak the situation really is. Also, our heading towards a right-wing polarisation, increased surveillance of ‘anti-nationals’, and louder chants for Mandir Yahin Banega.Yay: A bachelorette trip with my closest girls, marrying my best friend, leaving for a shoot right after the wedding, followed by a European honeymoon, and then the release of Mirzapur (having our own GIFs was definitely a very high point).Yay: When the Khabar Lahariya Editor-in-Chief Meera Devi, a woman beyond admiration, said that men had stopped sending porn videos, blue films and morphed photos to female journalists on WhatsApp. This was followed by the map of India which lit up in areas where #MeToo had spread and rural India wore a bold twinkling red. While it came belatedly to India, #MeToo was truly a case of better late than never. Hell with the naysayers; for the first time in our country, women were speaking up and more importantly being heard. Now, when we speak of fighting the good fight of gender equality, we can move beyond preaching to the converted to converting the preachy.
Nay: From being drugged to being gang-raped by men who wanted to satisfy their ‘lust’, to being strangled to death in two horrific attempts. Her tiny withered body was dumped in a forest, and seven-year-old Asifa was treated to inhumanity which was unimaginable. Her perpetrators have not been punished even though it was the worst crime ever. This country has a culture of granting impunity to rapists, murderers and sexual assaulters. It shows us that the image of progress cannot be used as a counterfoil for the reality of regression.Yay: My heartbreak motivated me to pack my bags and travel the world. This year, I did everything I’ve always been dying to do. I climbed Machu Picchu, went to Peru, learned salsa in Cartagena Colombia, and explored Pablo Escobar’s homes in Medellin. I travelled to Istanbul, Scandinavia and twice to Switzerland. I did everything I was afraid of, including staying by myself in a water villa in the Maldives for a week.Nay: Discovering on Valentine’s Day that my boyfriend of four years who I was about to marry was having an internet affair.
Akshat Nauriyal, musician, filmmaker and co-founder of St+art India
Shweta Tripathi, actor
Nay: I have no worst moments. The year has been too kind to me.
Meghna Pant, author and journalist
Shenaz Treasury, travel blogger
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Richa Kaul Padte, writer
Aniruddha Mahale, writer
Patrick Graham, screenwriter and director
Shriya Pilgaonkar, actor
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Abhishek Paatni, designer
Ankiet Gulabani, food writer
Navin Noronha, comedian and writer
Angira Dhar, actor
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Sharin Bhatti, co-founder of Books on Toast and brand consultant
Priyanka Paul, illustrator and poet
Nay: The #MeToo stories that we had to read and acknowledge where the men we so hugely idolised had been perpetrators of the oppression. The men so vehemently pretended to detest the accusations. It was an incredibly taxing period and called for so much trauma to be addressed. I think that was also the best part because it taught us so much and called for bonding and sisterhood.
Ramona Arena, RJ
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Kavya Trehan, musician, and actor
Sumaira Sheikh, comedian and writer
Dhruv Sehgal, actor and director
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Shashank Arora, actor
Mae Mariyam Thomas, founder/host of Maed in India
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Nay: The Kerala floods. The natural disaster took a devastating toll on a place I call home. Thankfully, the area that I'm from, Thiruvalla, was not badly submerged; however, it was caged in by water-logging in the surrounding areas with no way for people to get out or for anything to come in. Sadly, my grandmother was alone in our family home and there was no way in which my family or any of us grandchildren could come to her rescue. Being so far away in Mumbai, left me feeling helpless as I got news from friends, family, and the media of the destruction, stories of loss and tragedy that ensued.Yay: The best news has to be the one passed on September 6, when Section 377 said bye bye. Love is love!Nay: The worst news was tax money blown up to make the Statue of Unity. Like the WORST. That money could have been used for wayyy better things.Yay: The #MeToo movement was great. I’m glad so many people felt like they could come out and speak up.Nay: At the same time, reading all the call-outs and what people have been through on social media was really triggering for my mental health. Twitter should come with a trigger warning.Yay: I took up yoga and it’s the best thing that’s happened to me. I’m more flexible and feel detoxified thanks to it.Nay: Seeing headlines of so many great personalities passing away, from Avicii to Anthony Bourdain.Follow Noel and Shamani on Twitter.