Numberwise

• The defeat of the BJP-led NDA in the general elections
• Sonia Gandhi’s ‘No’ to prime ministership
• Indian truck drivers taken hostage in Iraq
• Union minister Shibhu Soren going underground
• The killing of Veerappan
• The arrest of Jayendra Saraswati

3 POLLS NOBODY COULD PREDICT

• Indian elections
• American elections
• BCCI elections

3 UMA BHARTI EXCLUSIVES

• Long telephone call to Venkaiah Naidu before culmination of tiranga yatra
• Confrontation with L.K. Advani before TV cameras
• Top secret letter to Advani calling colleagues names

3 BIG ACCIDENTS

• School fire in Kumbakonam killing 90 children
• Stampede at Lalji Tandon’s Lucknow saree mela killing 22 women
• The mass death of fish in Gujarat

6 POLITICAL WINNERS

• Manmohan Singh
• Left winning 56 LS seats
• Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy
• K. Chandrashekhar Rao of Telangana Rashtriya Samti
• Swati Dandekar, state representative, Iowa
• Bobby Jindal, Republican Congressman from Louisiana

2 NOVEL FORMS OF PROTEST

• Shiv Sainiks slapping an effigy of Mani Shankar Aiyar with chappals to protest his stand on Veer Savarkar
• Manipuri women going nude to slam army atrocities

8 POLITICAL LOSERS

• Atal Behari Vajpayee
• L.K. Advani
• Pramod Mahajan
• Bal Thackeray
• Venkaiah Naidu
• Uma Bharati
• Vijay Mallya
• P.A. Sangma

3 REASONS WHY JAYALALITHA Is Happy

• Veerappan’s killing
• Jayendra Saraswati’s arrest
• Rajnikant making peace

2 RAILWAY SPECIALS

• Laloo Yadav waves in the ‘kulhad’ (earthen cups)
• A.H. Wheeler’s monopoly on rail platforms is ended

7 BIG INTERNATIONAL STORIES

• George W. Bush’s return to power
• Prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib
• The school hostage crisis in Beslan
• The suicide bombings in Iraq
• Hamid Karzai’s victory in Afghan polls
• A.Q. Khan ousted as a nuclear rat
• The death of Yasser Arafat

2 New Words In Our Lexicon

• Detoxification
• Bangalored

1 DEATH V.P. SINGH (PROBABLY) DIDN’T MOURN

• Rajeev Goswami, 33, who shot to fame during the anti-Mandal agitation by immolating himself

1 SCANDAL We HAVE ALL FORGOTTEN

• The shootout involving Telugu film star Nandamuri Balakrishna, NTR’s son

1 INCIDENT OF SATI

4 BROKEN RECORDS

• Shane Warne overtakes Muralitharan
• Parimarjan Negi, 11, becomes youngest Indian to get International Master status
• Rahul Dravid becomes first player to appear in 85 consecutive Tests since debut
• Bula Chowdhury, 34, becomes world’s first woman to swim all seven seas

6 BIG BUSINESS STORIES

• Priyamvada Birla wills Rs 5,000 crore of assets to her auditor R.S. Lodha
• Mukesh Ambani goes public on "ownership issues" with brother Anil
• Global Trust Bank goes belly up
• Outcry in America over outsourcing to India
• IPOs have a golden run
• The stockmarket falls and then rises.And how.

1 CASE OF JUNGLE JUSTICE

• Nagpur women lynching molester

3 SETBACKS FOR IT

• Chandrababu Naidu’s defeat
• SM Krishna’s defeat.

• baazee.com chief Avnish Bajaj’s arrest

2 BUSINESS SUCCESSES

• Laxmi Mittal becomes Britain’s richest man, with a $31-billion empire and a $70-million home
• Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the richest Indian woman after Biocon listing

6 BOOKS BY BABUS

• T.S. Subramaniam: Journeys through Babudom and Netaland
• P.C. Alexander: Through the Corridors of Power
• B.G. Deshmukh: From Poona to PM’s Office
• J.N. Dixit: Makers of India’s Foreign Policy

• Pavan K. Varma: Being Indian
• J.M. Lyngdoh: Chronicle of an Impossible Election

2 CASES OF UTTER SHAMELESSNES

• The wrong cops being decorated for saving Chandrababu Naidu’s life
• Army officers in Siachen faking killings, asking soldiers to pose as dead enemy, making hazy videos and claiming bravery awards

6 MAJOR ANNIVERSARIES

• Taj Mahal turns 350
• Postal Department turns 150
• 20 years of Bhopal gas tragedy
• 100 years of JRD
• Tintin turns 75
• Rajkumar: 50 years in acting

1 CASE OF POOR TIMING

• Dhanonjoy Chatterjee being hanged on his birthday

2 SHOWBIZ NON-EVENTS

• Manoj Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Village’
• Aishwarya Rai’s ‘Bride and Prejudice’

10 BIG SPORTS STORIES

• Brian Lara hits 400 to become highest scorer beating Hayden’s record
• The Russian invasion in women’s tennis led by Maria Sharapova
• Virender Sehwag becoming the first Indian to score a triple ton
• Rajyavardhan Rathore wins a shooting silver at Athens Olympics
• Vijay Singh topples Tiger Woods as golf no. 1
• Lance Armstrong wins Tour de France the sixth time
• Anil Kumble overtakes Kapil Dev’s 434
• Sachin Tendulkar joins Sunil Gavaskar for most tons (34)
• Mohini Bharadwaj makes it to the American Olympics squad
• P. Harikrishna becomes world junior chess champ, only the second Indian after Vishwanathan Anand

2 SPORTING FLOPS AND TWO HITS

• Anju Bobby George ends up sixth and the weightlifters end up disgraced
• Irfan Pathan and Michael Clarke arrive

3 BIG SHOWBIZ STORIES

• The collective help by Mumbaikars for Shwaas to make it to the Oscar stage
• Mughal-e-Azam being released in colour
• Shahrukh Khan’s incredible run at the BO

2 MINDLESS EXTRAVAGANZAS

• Lakshmi Mittal’s daughter’s wedding at $60 million
• Subroto Roy’s sons’ wedding where 2,000 cooks were at work, 101 couples were blessed, 20 chartered planes, 200 Mercs ferried guests

5 WEDDINGS & TWO SPLITS

• Virender Sehwag weds Aarti
• V.V.S. Laxman weds Shailaja
• Narain Karthikeyan weds Pavarna
• Salman Rushdie weds Padma Lakshmi
• Raveena Tandon weds Anil Thadani
• Imran Khan and Jemima Goldsmith
• Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh

3 DESPERATE SKIN FLICKS

• India’s first lesbian film, Girlfriend, in which Amrita Arora and Isha Koppikar sucked each other’s thumbs
• Julie (starring Neha Dhupia), in which a young girl becomes a prostitute and exposes her clients on TV
• Rog, in which a cop becomes obsessed with a ‘dead’ woman whose murder he is probing

15 MINUTES OF FAME

• Miss India-World Lakshmi Pandit dethroned after being reported married to Siddharth Mishra

2 BOOKS BY ARMYMEN

• Gen S.Padmanabhan: India checkmates America 2017
• American Soldier: General Tommy Franks