Good riddance, 2025!

What an ungrateful headline. After all, this is the year 'What Will People Think?' was finally published in paperback in India. I got a lot of DMs from readers who said they enjoyed the book immensely. Some loved the throwback to the 70s. Some enjoyed the romance. Some loved the representation of Maharashtrian culture, said that they had been waiting to see themselves in print like that.

That's a lot of validation for an author, and really, it was very heart-warming.

But this is also the year I lost a job. For the second time in my life. One time, one could argue, is an accident. But twice? Twice seems like a pattern. Twice makes you think. It certainly made me think. If I still had what it took. If I was as good as I thought I was. If I was still cut out to work in an industry that was becoming increasingly cutthroat and inscrutable.

For five months of 2025, I sat and asked myself difficult questions. I worried about the future. I started greying, then losing hair, I upped my caffeine and alcohol intake. The only thing that has kept me relatively sane - apart from the love and support of my family - is the writing. Every time I felt consumed by fear and anxiety, I wrote. I finished writing the novel I was working on, then went back and rewrote parts so that they were better. I sent it out to my agent and hoped for the best.

Then, I started writing another book. I had to. The anxiety wasn't gone and I needed to do something that made me feel worthy enough. Interesting word, isn't it, 'worthy'? Of what, of whom, one might ask. And the answer simply is, of Life. Which sounds insane, when you think of it. Because why would one have to be worthy of a gift that one has already received? I feel the question has seeds of its own answer. Because the gift was given without us asking for it, and because it is such a very precious, wonderful gift, that is precisely why we must strive to be worthy of it. We may do it by loving those we cherish, or helping those who need help, we may do it by seeking to solve life's many mysteries, or by creating - art, music, literature, things of beauty and truth. By leaving the world, in some small, insignificant way, better than it was before.

Nobody has asked us to. Nobody will complain if we do not. But if we can, why shouldn't we strive to prove ourselves worthy of every breath?

Like I said, I have upped my caffeine and alcohol uptake, so a little philosophy was bound to happen. Still, not a bad thought to end this year on. Here's hoping 2026 comes wearing a smile instead of boxing gloves.