Real people who responded to something inside them, to those around them. Heroes we could all be but only a few of us did.

The Congress was in its teen blues, the BJP in a hangover. 2006 will wake everyone up.

Just a personal Michelangelo won't do. Time to acquire that buzz around yourself.

Heroism is seldom a perfect man's feat. It's an intuitive response fraught with danger, may not be that physically daunting but is enough to lift us all.

India's democratic theatre is poorer for the lack of public politicians. Liberalism is the casualty.

Each new year brings with it triumphs and failures, hope and disappointments. Outlook correspondents gaze into the distant sunset and paint the India of tomorrow.

In their own ways, these heroes exceed the bounds of their petty existence. We try to record their acts of nobility

The setbacks — Volcker, Bihar — had the ironic effect of stabilising coalition politics in the UPA

What do the sun signs hold for 2006? Saumya Roy asked stand-up comedians Sunil Pal, Raju Srivastava and Parag Kansara to look into their collective crystal ball. Their predictions.

The Left-Congress alliance will endure the '09 polls but by '14 a paler red will stake claim

We import 70% of our oil. N-energy is dormant. Solar power elusive. Where do we go?

Ganguly's exit from the team may have been unceremonious, but it marks a watershed

In faraway Delhi, the media often ignores the 'real' stories. Outlook asked 20 top regional editors to nominate one piece of news the rest of India should know.

2005 saw a combination of snorting bulls, but an equal number of scared as well as aggressive, fighting bears.

UPA had Volckergate. NDA's Bihar win was turned into shame by the candid camera revelations compounded by L.K. Advani's strange logic that the expulsion of MPs caught taking bribes was not commensurate with the offence - "like inflicting capital puni

From storms in tea-cups to banal brouhahas and kerfuffles to deep outrage over shameful incidents that occupied the activists, the channels, the front pages

Tsunami, Ayodhya attack, Delhi blasts, earthquake in Kashmir...and the floods: it was as if the levee broke, roads turned to rivers, but life held on to the end of a rope. When not nature, man himself was the cause and bane. Sometimes he responded li

Was this a successful year, diplomatically speaking? From the bridge over troubled borders with Pakistan to walking in step with Bush. Plus all the movers and shakers on the global stage.

From the tsunami after-effects through London 7/7, Katrina, the earthquake in PoK, to the continuing death, destruction and atrocities in Iraq and elsewhere in the world...

Were there reasons to smile, laugh, make merry, have fun, revel, play, joke, rejoice, celebrate? Here are some.

Our yearly Roll of Dishonour. Please tell us the ones we missed - make up your own awards and nominations.

In an era of danger and disaster, are bloggers the new angels, bravely rushing in where mainstream media can't, or won't? Yes, say the devout. Fat chance, says the inhouse sceptic.

India's got a new icon, while the master got to his 35th Test ton, Sania climbed up on WTA rankings and into Indian hearts. And then there was Dhoni.

From new world records for highest wickets to highest runs to the fastest 100 metres, and the 5-m mark in Pole vault, and more...

He led India to an unlikely conquest of the World Cup in 1983, and became god. It is fair to respect people who have done things that others don't, he argues, but don't treat them as gods.

Abu Salem (n): a villain who becomes a hero. Page 3 (n): what you read about Madhur Bhandarkar, and other such.

Why is a hero a hero? Is being a hero predestined, genetic? Or is it a reaction to a stimulus? A look at the recipe for extraordinariness.

The multiplex space gave birth to both: good middle cinema and bad extremes

When you were riveted, and when you didn't return after the commercial break

One of India's best known DJs, Aqeel did the music album of hit TV show Nach Baliye, composed music for Shaadi No 1 and opened Bombay's hottest nightclub this year. His favourite songs this year.

India's favourite creator of heroes deconstructs heroes and the audiences that fete them and emulate them.

It had seemed fitting to commemorate him in something living, something he himself had rescued with such typical kindness...

It was a year in which Indian stars schmoozed with foreign ones, in movies, in endorsement deals, for charity concerts, for friendship or plain PR

While some succeeded in finding their feet, others simply danced into the limelight by dint of hard work and by controversy

In a year of public spats and near-break-ups, cupid finally had to interfere and set things in order

Test your wits. Take part in the Outlook quiz. There is a laptop, three Apple iPod Nanos, and 200 tee-shirts up for grabs.

A stampede in a flood relief camp kills 42. Is this enough to wake up the babus? Updates

Manipur CM Ibobi Singh's dole to insurgents threatens to snowball with the Opposition out for his head

Lax security, cost-cutting measures lead to the rape, murder of a call centre staffer

The sweeping outcry against his ouster has flung the Ganguly issue beyond cricket. Suddenly, dada is on the front foot. Updates