My mother's saris

I don’t remember ever bemoaning the end of a year as I have 2022. I think it has been quite the annus horribilis. The Russia-Ukraine war has plunged the world into economic gloom, especially at a time when it was struggling to come out of a brutal pandemic.

- NAMRATA ZAKARIA

Rising fuel costs, inflation, joblessness, climate change-induced weather fluctuations, women’s rights struggles in Iran and Afghanistan—the world has really been challenged, stretched, torn, beaten and exhausted this year. While everyone seems to be waiting to ring in the New Year, I am having trouble letting go.

I lost my mother this year. I am afraid I will be expected to stop grieving soon, because in 2023 she would have died the previous year. I had her with me in January and February of 2022, and I won’t have her in any month from 2023 onwards. It is childlike, and I feel like I am holding on to the tailend of her sari pallu while she has already moved on to the next room. But there does not seem to be a right time to let go.