Manifesting' a city we want to live in, a government that thinks of us

I am tempted to turn metaphysical and resort to manifesting a few of my desires for my city and the state

- SMRUTI KOPPIKAR

Midst the tsunami of election coverage in Mumbai, and the rest of Maharashtra, a little piece of news grabbed my attention. The revered Cambridge Dictionary, it said, had selected the word 'manifest' as its Word of the Year 2024 after it was looked up more than 1,30,000 times on its website, making it one of the most viewed words of the year. It set off a train of thoughts about the state of affairs we find ourselves in as Maharashtra prepares to convene its 15th Assembly with 288 members but, before that, a few lines about the word itself.

Manifest, manifesting, manifestation. These have been the words of the metaphysical world and the self-help community that gathered massive momentum on social media in the past few years—during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The belief that one can manifest the life, the job, the house or romance one desires has found many takers in recent years and it appears to have empowered people to summon energies of all realms to make their desires a reality.

The word 'manifest', according to the Cambridge Dictionary, jumped from the self-help community on the social media to "being widely used across mainstream media and beyond, as celebrities such as singer Dua Lipa, Olympic sprinter Gabby Thomas and England striker Ollie Watkins spoke of manifesting their success in 2024". To manifest simply means to imagine achieving something one wants, in the belief that doing so is more likely to make it happen.