So, what's on your wish-list?

It's time again to make impossible wish-lists

According to a learned professor of sociology I once met, "The Cult of New Year (NY) is the only pan-global, meta-religion." Admittedly, the lady was from southern California and she asserted this while in the middle of some sustained substance abuse dedicated to the passage of the last millennium.

She could have put it more pithily, but nevertheless, she was right. NY is the only universal religion: everybody celebrates it (except, one sincerely hopes, on-duty members of emergency civic services).

It's a time for taking stock of our lives and drinking heavily to soften the impact, as most of us do at NY, is a natural corollary to any such internal audit.

NY is also about contemplating the impossible. It's about the framing of impossible-to-keep resolutions and the pursuit of impossible-to-attain successes. It's about a progression of impossibly bonhomous parties and, if you're lucky, being kissed by beautiful strangers.

It's about the making of impossible wish-lists. The wish-list is absolutely mandatory if you happen to be a member of the media and writing for publication anytime between the Winter Soltice and Sankranti. It is a serious solecism in media circles not to have a NY wish-list. Here's mine.

Drawing a veil over ecstatic daydreams about interacting with Kylie Minogue, I would be happy at a personal level if the Indian hockey, cricket and chess teams consistently won next year.

It would make me even happier if I could legally earn rewards for cheering those gifted men and women on. So, let's shoot for the moon "" legalised sports gambling. Judiciously taxed, this would raise enough revenues to cut the fisc in half and make Jaswant Singh very happy as well.

On the geo-political front, one can only echo Michael Moore's often-voiced desire. He wants Oprah Winfrey to stand as the Democratic presidential candidate and wipe the floor with George W Bush in November 2004.

Apart from the fact that she's considerably brighter and much more decorative than Dubya, she's also likely to be more environment-friendly, more libertarian and less likely to think of aircraft carriers as photo-opportunities.

She comes from the entertainment industry, which has been comfortable with outsourcing for many decades, so she would downplay the political backlash against business process outsourcing (BPO).

On the domestic political front, I would really, really like a campaign that talked a lot about development and didn't mention temples or Italians even in passing. I don't care who forms the next government, so long as it's a hung parliament.

Maybe in 2004, businesses will develop more sensitivity to the concerns of Indian consumers? The Coke-Pepsi-pesticide episode, the incident where rocks were plastered with ads on mountain highways, and the discovery of worms in Cadbury chocolates were shocking eye-openers.

In each case, the corporations in question looked for legal provisions to hide behind, rather than having the grace to stand up, say "sorry" and make sure that it didn't happen again.

The termination of Sushmita Sen's contract with Coca-Cola sparked off a furore, which ended with an out-of-court settlement after the model brought charges of sexual harassment.

This was at one end of a spectrum of crime, which included the 2004 carjacking-rape of a diplomat in a public parking lot and the multiple molestation of women travelling on trains through Bihar. It would be wonderful if north India becomes a safer place for women.

It would also be nice if, instead of talking about enhanced punishments for rapists, the authorities actually caught them and punished them according to the provisions of existing law. Whether its rape, murder or embezzlement, criminals are rarely caught and punished, especially if they have any clout.

A more efficient justice system would be right up there on my wish-list. That to my mind, would be the only fitting requiem for Satyendra Dubey "" my nomination for Indian of the Year.