2014 has not been very different from its predecessors. It has been, like all other years preceding it, a year of mixed events of diverse hues.

In India, on the political front, the year proved cruel for a 100 old Congress party. Also, it saw the emergence of a new political outfit-Aam Aadmi Party. More importantly, 2014 witnessed the emergence of a new national leader in Narendra Modi and found BJP being catapulted in to power as never before. It was after decades that a political party got a clear mandate to rule.

On the economic front, the year has been troublesome for the common people of India. Inflation has been too much of a bother for them. However, because of falling prices of crude in international market, Indians were saved from rise in prices of gas, petrol and diesel. Also, it prevented price rise of commodities across the board.

India did well in its space program. ISRO was successful in placing a low cost probe in to Mars’s orbit.

India’s Kailash Satyarthi brought honor to the country by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2014 saw India freeing itself from the scourge of Polio which had been devastating lives of hundreds of thousands of children every year.

There was celebration for people of Telangana who got a new state carved for them in 2014.

However, human tragedies, too, were around. The northern state of Jammu and Kashmir reeled under the worst floods ever. The September 2014 floods wreaked havoc in the State, snuffing out more than 250 lives, destroying more than 3.5 lakh structures, including 2.5 lakh residences, and rendering over 12 lakh families homeless.

2014 has also been a year of social and communal tensions. The issues of Love Jehad and conversions or gharvapasi created an atmosphere of mistrust and, mutual hatred, to some extent among followers of different faiths. Obviously, it is not a good sign for the nation, prone to easy communal provocations.

In the world theater, there has been more grief than joy. The Gaza massacre, the killing of school children in Peshawar, ISIS beheading of Western journalists, police killings of a young man in Ferguson and of another in New York, mounting tension between the people and the police in USA, the aviation tragedies involving two Malaysian aircrafts which left hundreds aboard dead, and the usual political rivalries of nations and internal disturbances and dissensions in countries of the world were enough to make people miserable.

However, like in the past, we do not continue to look back for ever; we look ahead and move on.

Good bye 2014!