Column

As a tumultuous year comes to its end, here are four people who I believe made a huge impact, one way or another.

Barack Obama: Four years ago, were there more a handful of people who knew of him? Four weeks from now, will there be even a handful who do not know him?

Obama's campaign victory in the United States presidential elections is the stuff of legend. A coloured man getting the top job in that country was even more remote than a woman becoming president of the most powerful country in the world, all said and done.

While neither of these contingencies reflected too well on the American state where gender and race equality is concerned, Obama's emphatic victory showed not just the intrinsic strength of democratic values and liberal sense in American life, but also just how fed up the world was with George W Bush Jr.

This, of course, leaves Obama with the most onerous job in the world: He has to tackle recession at home, terrorism overseas (now accentuated with the 26/11 attack on Mumbai), all the while trying to convince the world that the United States is not quite the villain of our times. Yet, if he believes somewhat in his own slogan, yes, maybe Obama can.

Abhinav Bindra: Sachin Tendulkar became the highest run-getter in cricket, Virendra Sehwag smashed the fastest triple century in the history of the game, Mahendra Singh Dhoni won four of his first five Tests as captain — but heck, winning an individual
Olympic gold medal is something else.

Shooting may not be a great spectator sport, but Abhinav Bindra's feat was spectacular for its psychological import in the context of Indian sport. It broke a hoodoo that has haunted this country for more than a century. When he hit the bull's eye with his final shot the country rediscovered its self-belief, so to speak. Suddenly, boxers and wrestlers start making waves at the Beijing Olympics. Suddenly Saina Nahiwal emerged as a potential world beater in badminton. Suddenly, India does not look like a basket case where sport is concerned. Suddenly, there is hope of not one, but five gold medals at the London Games. Abhinav has provided us the impetus, we can now be casual only at our own cost.

Aamir Khan: Almost a year back, when I met Aamir Khan, he was in the process of redefining his body. I can't quite remember whether he mentioned “eight-pack abs”, but he did say that his role in a new movie had compelled him to build muscle and acquire a different physicality from what he was known for.

I have yet to see Ghajini, but reports suggest that it’ll be a blockbuster like Taare Zameen Par, where Aamir was an ordinary school teacher with no muscles. He is emerging as arguably the biggest influence on contemporary Hindi cinema — by the end of 2008 he was producer, director, actor, marketer, impresario.

What marks out Aamir as different from the pack, I think, is his competitive streak, his hard-nosed diligence, and a terrific capacity to take risks. In a sense, he is the quintessential Hindi film hero, in many ways he is not. He is a student of the medium of cinema, and also a man of the world.

Ajmal Kasab: I agonised and debated for days, but finally decided to include the 21-year-old terrorist in this list because nothing quite affected the Indian psyche as much as the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November. Yes, Ajmal is just 21, which should haunt us as much as his heinous act has hurt our national sensibility. What compels such young minds to cause the violent destruction that they so firmly seem to believe in?

From what has emerged so far after investigating him, the infantile approach to life and the causes Ajmal sees important tells us chillingly of what the fight against terrorism entails. But while what lurks in the mind of this baby-faced 21-year-old is something that will occupy psychoanalysts for many, many months undoubtedly, what should be of even greater concern is that he is only symptomatic of a larger malaise.

It can be argued that people like Ajmal actually hate themselves more than what they proclaim to hate. But all said and done, that cannot restrain the effort to rationalise what happened on 26/11. Ajmal has compelled us to pledge ourselves to help ourselves