Look back at 2009 and the "noughties"

So, here we are again at the end of another year and also, another decade. They've been pretty similar to other years and other decades with plenty of ups, and plenty of downs.

2009 has been, in many ways, rather like 2008. A good year for India in sports, some unfortunate terrorist attacks, natural calamities and the continuation of the economic slowdown. We've also seen the clamping down on the major torrent sites and the rise of Twitter.

This decade, belatedly christened the "noughties", has been one of great change. Back in 1999, VCRs were still popular and Apple was a has-been. Encarta was everyone's favourite encyclopaedia, and people generally used landlines.

Today, of course, we're moving past DVDs to Blu-ray, Apple came up with the iPod and iPhone, we have Wikipedia, and mobiles can now do just about everything, as long as you can figure them out and your fingers aren't too big for the new, tiny keypads.

So, once again, we look forward to a new year and decade and hope that things average themselves out nicely.

Look back at 2008

The year 2008 draws to a close, which in the larger scheme of things means little more than the fact that our planet is nearly in the same place, with respect to the sun, as it was 366 days ago. Still it's a good excuse to celebrate.

This year, like all other years, continues to epitomise that immortal line by Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Indeed, in sports, it was a gala year, for India especially. In cricket, the Indian team has had an excellent year, winning all over the place, except in Sri Lanka. The Australia series was a great victory, as was the one against England. The IPL was also a huge money-spinning success. Australia, has finally had a terrible year, able to dominate only New Zealand, and losing at home to a rampant South Africa. South Africa has gone from "chokers", to a team that never says die, rather like the old Australian teams of the 90s.

Football and tennis have been great fun too. Rafael Nadal has taken over at the top, and took the Wimbledon crown from Roger Federer. In football, Man U won the Champions' League. Also, Spain finally won a trophy, Euro 2008, beating not some team that always loses like England or Holland, but Germany, that always seems to win tournaments.

Plus, India has had its best Olympics ever, and Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz's long standing medal record.

There have been some sadder events too. Quite a few terrorist attacks and the big global recession that has everyone freaked out.

So, goodbye 2008, it's been nice knowing you, but we're still looking forward to meeting 2009.