What Were Your Highest Highs and Lowest Lows in the Past Year?

There can be a universal consensus that things have irreversibly changed, for better or worse, after the pandemic first made its way into every single aspect of our lives from March 2020. As we know all too well, the human race had no option but to get accustomed to the bizarreness of things soon after – so much so that even the Pentagon acknowledging the presence of UFOs barely created a flutter on the internet. 

On the subject of all things bizarre, barely a few months into 2022, Will Smith became infamous for the slap that was heard across the world. And if that wasn’t bizarre enough, a few months later, we were bracing for nuclear annihilation in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. The return of the Taliban in Afghanistan set us back by decades as the world watched the militant Islamist group brutally revoke basic human rights. 

And yet we somehow got along and tried our best to move on by playing Taylor Swift’s new album on repeat, anticipating the sequel to director James Cameron’s Avatar after over a decade, finding joy in international and domestic travel, and bringing our best meme game to the table because the Met Gala didn’t disappoint on that front. Back home in India, the Alia-Ranbir wedding gave news channels and social media enough content to suffice for a month. How could we forget Ranveer Singh’s nude photoshoot for Paper Magazine that even spilled into police stations across the country? However, matchmaking Sima Aunty’s return to our screens with a new season of Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking was disappointing. 

To encapsulate the year that was, we asked some people behind the stuff we’ve watched, listened to or discussed in 2022, to share their best and worst moments of 2022. 

Yay: It was fun having Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, a Netflix series, received with so much love. I remember our director taking us to the Bandra locality in Mumbai and clicking a picture [against] those massive hoardings. That was special. Another yay moment was starting the shooting for the third season of Amazon Prime Video’s Mirzapur. It was the same feeling as going to school after the holidays, except this was a school that I enjoyed. Everyone had this nervousness to do justice to their characters and the story that has been widely loved by audiences. 

Beyond work, it was also fun travelling to Theog, a small, scenic town in Himachal Pradesh. Soon after, I travelled with my best friend, Mallika Dua, to London. We ended up watching so many musicals from the Harry Potter musical to Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera – both of us came back to India hungry to perform. 

It was also a lovely moment going to my friend’s house in Punjab, cutting vegetables and cooking for them. We [ate] white butter like curd. I believe it’s important for our children to know where their vegetables are coming from and we had that experience. We even had sugarcane from the fields and bit into it with our teeth. Another highlight was witnessing the euphoria of the India vs. Pakistan cricket match live in Australia. 

Nay: I fell sick during the shoot of Mirzapur and was worried that the whole schedule was going to be affected because of me. I locked myself in the room and cried. It was annoying that I wouldn’t be able to give my hundred percent to the character of Golu, especially as it was a story that I was so excited to get back to. Fortunately, I tested negative for COVID. It was additionally difficult because the scenes were really, really dark. I ended up carrying the character of Golu with me well after the shoot was over. I had to get a different haircut and a hair colour after the shoot was over. 

Yay: This year was alright on the whole. I slowed down work and became a little more conscious about what I was putting out. The best time I had was when I went to Goa recently with college friends. One of us was getting married and we had an amazing time because it was the first time in so many years that all of us were able to align our timelines. I was the happiest in those three days. I collaborated with Kareena Kapoor Khan on a video, so that was also a highlight. But I’m trying to readjust my thinking about how I’m approaching work, so personal ups and downs would take priority over any worst or best moments list for me. This realisation came [to me] only after facing burnout this year. 

A good moment was going back to college after nine years to [collect] my degree certificate. It felt pretty much like how I felt when I walked into college for the first time on orientation day. I visited all my favourite spots on the premises, went to my department and fortunately met a dear professor of mine. I met so many students who recognised me from the Internet and had canteen food and coffee that hasn’t changed in a decade. It was a blissful afternoon.

Nay: I got COVID this year. I got it at a time when nobody else was getting it. I had to isolate for 14 days, which was hard. Also, my cat, Patches, is turning 10 next year and he had major teeth surgery – that was kinda painful and fuckey. He was on anaesthesia, so I had to carry his limp body back home. That was not fun. Dealing with the reality of his mortality was jarring. 

Yay: Well, on the whole, these are unpleasant times, what with war, the march of bigotry, the closing of minds, and worse. But there are always moments of happiness and satisfaction, probably linked to that very human tendency to keep hope. On a personal level, I am happy that my latest book, False Allies, which was released late last year, went into multiple reprints in 2022. My work matters a good deal to me, perhaps more than is healthy but, either way, this was a point of satisfaction. 

Another milestone is that I finished my PhD this month. It was a long journey and featured several impediments and breaks beyond my control. I am glad that I persevered and went through with it: sticking to a plan can at times be the toughest thing. 

There was also growth of a different type: I had to pick up some practical skills that I don’t usually need, and that I, therefore, tend to ignore. I also had to push myself with fitness. I got used to home workouts, which of course I did diligently during the pandemic. This year I returned to the gym after a long gap and broke out of that comfort zone. These are, of course, small joys and achievements frankly, and not something one would or ought to advertise as anything major. But they matter to me as an individual trying to negotiate life.

Nay: There is the general despondency of our times. The news is bad, social media spaces are more toxic than ever, we all equate performance with substance in varying degrees, and even reward it, and the world seems less and less predictable. One can’t predict what the next two years will look like, let alone the rest of one’s lifetime. I was a bit annoyed that global factors made paper expensive over the last year; suddenly the prices of all my books shot up, limiting access for many people. It is not something I can do much about, but it is frustrating because one gets messages from dejected students, to name a few. 

Yay: Although I got legally married last year, we celebrated this year because COVID calmed down for a bit. My husband’s family flew down from the United States and we could have all our close friends for a nice weekend getaway. People say you often don’t have fun at your own wedding, but I’d disagree. 

On the professional front, I went independent, moved my reviews to my own personal channel and got 50,000 subscribers. It’s not a huge number, but it was quite a milestone achievement to have built this community. I started a fruitful partnership with a production house, Civic Studios, where we look at the pop culture happenings of the current week and give our own commentary on it.

It’s still in its nascent stage, but it’s refreshing to see people resonate with it. Also, going to Paris was magnificent. It’s definitely worth the hype. I also went to London for the first time – very expensive – but again worth it because it’s so easy to manoeuvre and understand. I got my first big viral moment this year – a short Instagram version of my review Liger went viral with 7 million views. 

Nay: It has to be watching Shamshera in London. The city is already expensive with its cab fares and ticket prices, but I thought it would all be worth it because Ranbir Kapoor was returning to the big screen after four years. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly upset at what was served. There are bad films and then there are disappointing films – Shamshera was the latter. 

Also, another nay moment would be the heightened sense of dread that people feel in expressing their opinions. The troll army has strengthened and they seem to have figured out how to scare culture commentators, forcing them to make their accounts private. Another sad moment was how the number of intermediary agencies increased in my inbox, asking me how much I’d charge for a favourable review of a movie or series. I don’t see it as a compliment, it’s jarring. It just makes you wonder how many platforms and people are falling into the trap of accepting some kind of quid pro quo. 

Yay: This was the year my first show as a director was released, Rocket Boys. It was the result of more than two to three years of hard work. When the show finally came out in February, it was a mix of so many emotions – this feeling that a project in which you have invested something comes to mean something. Only last week, Rocket Boys won eight awards at the Filmfare OTT Awards ceremony. We have all grown up watching the Filmfare awards and it was definitely a moment I’ll never forget. 

Another yay moment was my sister’s wedding. She has cerebral palsy and I’m very close to her, so it was the most beautiful part of my life, not just my year, to see her getting married to perhaps the best man I’ve known, someone she loves and we all respect. 

Nay: The period after the euphoria and success of Rocket Boys was particularly depressing. I wasn’t prepared for that void. I didn’t know anyone in the film industry or even Mumbai when I came to the city to make this show. So, I didn’t have anyone to prepare or guide me as to how I could navigate the way. The expectations and pressure to do something even better and quickly were daunting and pushed me into a dark space. I had to learn to focus, tune everything out, and be in control. 

Yay: Working with Lollapalooza as an art director was phenomenal. We went into the meeting with them not expecting anything and they trusted us. The scale of the festival is twice [as large] compared to what we have done so far. It was a dream come true to work with a massive global music film festival that has been on since 1991. It’s also the year that I was born, so that was something. I was brought to tears when my entire team was working on this project from scratch, to see all of us working together like a family. 

Nay: My year started with COVID. We had to shut down a lot of our operations. That was the lowest point of my year. To me, Kanye West was a big nay moment. He’s such a great mind. I’d seen a documentary on him on Netflix that showed how much he’d achieved from nothing. So, it was disappointing to see his fall. Elon Musk taking over Twitter is quite bizarre too. He turned out to be a dimwit [compared to] what one had expected from him, particularly coming from a guy who started SpaceX and who’s now doing whatever the hell he wants just because he’s the richest man on the planet. And it doesn’t help that he is enabling hate by reactivating hate-filled accounts. 

Yay: I moved out of my parents’ home and started living on my own which really helped me focus on my identity. Working on Swiggy’s Minis was also a major moment where I was only the fifth hire in the team. We took it from a concept note to a launch product serving thousands of sellers across the country and helping them build their small businesses by enabling them to reach bigger audiences. As a Sikh woman, this was part of many core tenets of Sikhism – seva where we serve others, or sarbatta pala where you try your best to improve the lives of everyone around. I’ve always believed in [these ideas]. But for the first time, I could actually translate them into reality just through an app. A vendor recently texted me [saying] he’d shipped his first pan-India order to Ranchi, a city in which he has no contacts. That is incredibly fulfilling.  

Nay: Moving in alone also came with its own side of crippling loneliness. There were days when if there were no work meetings, I wasn’t talking to anyone. So, finding a sense of identity and life outside work was a lot of work. It was also unsettling to see a lot of governments and geographies that we thought were “stable” falling apart – from the sad fallouts of the January 6 storming of the United States Capitol to the Russia-Ukraine war to the global energy crisis. So, to see countries that we saw as representing a modicum of stability collapsing makes us wonder if we really are living in a “brave new world” where we have no clue what’s happening. It was also disheartening how the Taliban in Afghanistan was restricting women’s access to education and the same was being mirrored in Karnataka (referring to the burqa ban in educational institutions). It was jarring that all the advances that we have made in terms of [human] rights can be taken away from us at any point. 

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