It’s the final week of 2021. A year that came with incredible heartbreak, challenges, opportunities for revival, and some euphoria, as nations plotted an exit strategy from the pandemic. Now, things are up in the air again. A new Covid-19 variant might play spoilsport to best-laid plans and cast a shadow on future ambitions. In many ways, we’re learning to live with the virus. But I, for one, also miss the bits we’ve lost, albeit transitorily—random smiles from maskless faces, no panic after a harmless cough, and water-cooler conversations with co-workers that often sparked inspiration. But that’s just how things are for now. What started in early 2020 continues to weigh on our schedules and behaviour. In many ways, no matter how much the future moves away from the past, it continues to reflect the formative years and be affected by them. Our stories & articles this week also tugged on this theme—how shadows of the past invariably shape the future, especially on the business end of things. We also published a sharp set of newsletters this week. They were about how financial inclusion might offer WhatsApp a way to crack the digital payments in India, how ITC’s sticky relationship with cigarettes isn’t getting any easier, Finally, there’s a thing I do each year as the last week kicks in. I go back to the “Year in Search” videos produced by Google to just reflect on some things that defined the past 12 months and more. Here are the ones for 2021 and 2020. And my personal favourite, the one from 2015.
https://youtu.be/EqboAI-Vk-U
https://youtu.be/rokGy0huYEA
https://youtu.be/q7o7R5BgWDY We’re on a break from our usual stories next week, but we've got something special lined up! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and get to ring in the Happy New Year full of joy and surrounded by your loved ones. Take care from spreading of virus and pandemic crisis..
