The end of the year brings an opportunity to look back, pause, and look ahead every year. And even if it does come every year it is never the same for each one of us with the change of the calendar on the wall. That is what makes the augment of the New Year intriguing! Reminiscing on 2019 brings back a flash of events and issues passed by.
On the global front, people are so much closer today. Boundaries are dissolving and plural society makes the social fabric vibrant and invigorating as much as chaotic and tumultuous with the fast pace of change sweeping our lives.
The environment has taken precedence over major issues affecting the world as it seeps into our city to necessitate setting up of 2 air pollution monitoring stations. Campaigns, slogans, missions have spread awareness of green climate, health and sanitation issues, trickling to the grassroots of society giving rise to activism aspiring to make the neighbourhood and the planet a better place to breath for the new generations. There is less litter on the roads!
The discussions of National Politics have become rampant on the street, in autos, in public places and on social evenings, they reveal a motely of views and opinions, pro and con of the current Government. Everyone knows so much and yet!
Cataclysms under different banners have disturbed normal lives but have gained popularity for an unseen cause. To rise beyond being a mere witness to unpleasant and unfair practices by people in power and to be able to gain justice in a system distorted for vested interests, has become a milestone to be achieved in the new year.
There is a cell phone in every hand and the apps therein have made every action as fast as lightning. Success stories of start-ups from local quarters grow into big businesses reaching the headlines of Economic Times. Sports talent has gained limelight. It is heartening to read about small-town names coming to the fore with deserved acumen. Opportunities have risen!
Consumerism has become super-king as the country and city thrives with booming Malls with branded outlets not to mention the online commerce reaching housewives in nooks and corners. Happy times for shopaholics!
Thanks to social media. Travel and culinary have become a religion. Everyone unites for the palate. No wonder the swiggy, uber eats and others zooming on city roads! And most fly to Bali as much as they drive to Mumbai!
Nashik gears up with smart city projects but driving through potholes still make it an adventurous one too. To ride a bike through Old Nasik, to travel in public transport with a dignified seat, to sit and watch as artists paint on roadside at Ashok Stambh, to rest on benches in clean gardens, to visit the Sarkarvada museum with car parking, to walk into art galleries in and around, to drive on roads with disciplined traffic and to walk along the clean Godavari with a paved Riviera remains a wish for the new year. Cheers to 2020.
– Seema Moghe
