Spectator by Seema Goswami: Soft-launching 2026
So, here we are, meeting each other in the new year. I must confess to a certain sense of relief to see the last of 2025 — and I can’t be the only one to feel this way. As years go, it was a bit of a bummer (pardon my French) with the world seemingly determined to go to hell in a hand basket. It’s hard to see how 2026 can be any worse, honestly, though I may well be speaking (or, more accurately, writing) too soon.
I am not one for perennial pessimism, though. And it is in the spirit of eternal optimism that I am sharing my wish list for the new year with you. Warning: I’m not looking at the big picture or holding out for world peace. Instead, I am focusing on small, incremental changes that will make my life better. So here goes:
The first thing on my wish list is somewhat predictable, given that I live in Delhi. Yes, it’s clean air, or should I say, cleaner air. I am not an unreasonable person, so I am not asking for miracles. I don’t expect the AQI to go down to single digits, but is too much to ask for just moderately polluted air (let’s say an AQI of 150) as opposed to toxic levels of pollution (an AQI that hovers around 500). I wish for this with all my heart and lungs but, as the cliche goes, I won’t be holding my breath.
Last year was not a stellar year for my health, with asthma stalking me relentlessly no matter where in the world I went. A curious side effect, thanks to the constant breathlessness, coughing and general fatigue, was that I lost the will to read. As a voracious reader all my life, this came as something of a blow to me. But no matter how hard I tried to get into books the words would keep swimming before my eyes and after reading a page or two my attention would wander. It was a frustrating experience and one that I don’t wish to repeat in 2026. So, here’s hoping that my attention span stages a recovery this year even if my asthma does not.
Travelling the world is all very well and I enjoy it tremendously, but this year I am holding out for my very own discovery of India. I have always been a trifle ashamed of the fact that while I have been as far afield as Machu Pichu in Peru and Rotorua in New Zealand I still have not visited such landmarks as the Sun Temple in Konark and the Khajuraho temples nearer home. So, domestic travel is on my wish list this year.
Learning a new skill, they say, is a good way to stave off dementia as you grow older. So, having spent some years studying French and Italian, this year I am going to try my luck with Spanish. Nothing too ambitious; just an hour or so on Duolingo every day. The idea is not so much to attain fluency but to keep my brain cells ticking over. And maybe order a cup of coffee or ask for directions if I do travel to Spain this year (here’s wishing!).
From HT Brunch, January 03, 2026. Follow us on www.instagram.com/HTBrunch
