The Year of Living Differently
Shalini Passi, Founder, MASH & SPAF, art collector, philanthropist
This year I’m going to go all Mocha Mousse, the Pantone Colour of 2025, with some creative texturing. The colour appeals to me as it’s very universal and also very earthy — it fits into a contemporary context amazingly, especially in the winters. It’s also a very versatile colour that can be mixed with black and whites.
One can have a lot of creative fun with it. Capriccio Azure and Canary Yellow were my favourite colours of 2024. Mocha Mousse is different and sets a different mood. Last year for me personally, it was all about colours, and experimenting with different textures. This is a more sombre colour, but I want to make it fun with different cuts and different silhouettes.
Sohini Chattopadhyay,
Author, The Day I Became a Runner: A Women’s History of India Through the Lens of Sport
It was a remark from Prof Debashis Chatterjee, the director of IIM Kozhikode, where I was teaching a guest course that put it in my mind: like many business studies scholars, the professor is a prolific writer of books and social media posts. “I often post things I have scribbled on a napkin on LinkedIn and those are the most popular,” he said.
“I think people like to see hand-drawn, hand-written things.” And that brought to mind, the actor Soumitra Chatterjee speaking in a documentary on Satyajit Ray about how the perfectionist made him practise his Bengali handwriting in the style of the 19th-century Calcutta, where Charulata is set. And the image of the hand-written Bengali letters followed—a most enjoyable stream of consciousness!
I decided to start writing to friends by hand again. I was tired of Whatsapp and waiting for responses. (I am guilty of this too. It is so hard to answer how things are to someone you have last seen six months ago in person!) But there is something that loves notepaper, pen and the date and place line to get the mind going (to paraphrase the lovely opening of Robert Frost’s poem). A handsome piece of paper with this information is an invitation to think and speak thoughtfully, frankly, to share a life so to speak.
It helps that I work in CEPT University, Ahmedabad, which has perhaps the best stationery shop I have known—it has to, architects and designers are finicky about pens, paper and other instruments of drawing. I’ve decided to write letters and skip the peremptory Whatsapp check-in.
(It’s another thing that my handwriting is nothing like the cinematic script of Ray’s Charulata. In Bengali we say, muktor moto lekha—pearl-like writing. My hand looks like darning on a sock, but still, I have to say I have a soft spot for it.)
Rahgir, Musician
Every time I open Instagram or YouTube, they often show you that your reach is some percent down or up from last time you posted.
It makes you feel as if you are in a race. For example, I may have some song in mind that I want to make, but the analytics will show me to create some viral content. It pushes an artiste like me to fall in that trap to get more reach. In 2025, I am not going to be bothered by analytics.
I will go back to why I started a music career in the first place—for self-expression. Art, for me, is about creating from what I feel and think about people and society around me. I am also deeply influenced by cinema.
This year, I am planning to make short films as there are many stories in long format that I want to tell which cannot be expressed through just music. Plus, I have done a few shows in small cities and towns in 2024. But I am going to increase that number as there are many listeners in the hinterlands, and small towns of our country.
Shweta Tripathi, Actor
Ilately realised that I am living the dreams that a younger me dreamt about — of acting. However, there are several other activities I used to do or dreamt about as a kid. For instance, I wanted to do a cartwheel and a split as a kid. I also used to do Bharatanatyam, which I don’t do anymore. I remember I used to feel so good doing it, shutting the door to my room during childhood.
In 2025, I am planning to rekindle the simple pleasures of life that I used to cherish as a kid.
I want people to ask me if I have done that cartwheel or watched that theatre show! Currently, I am learning to give up on artificial sugar.
My co-actor Gurmeet Choudhary in the Kali Kali Aankhen web series has not had sugar for more than a year. I am inspired by the discipline, and hard work of such people. I’m planning to leave it even before January 2025 to test if I can resist desserts at New Year!
Atul Khatri, Stand-up comedian
People, mostly techies, were using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools till 2024. But 2025 will see a more proliferated use of AI across sectors. It could be in the form of a search engine, query engine or a graphic poster. For instance, earlier I used to go to an illustrator to get a poster of a show designed and brief them verbally. This year onwards, I will be using AI to create a version of a poster on the basis of my briefings. I can now show that version to the illustrator and tell them more clearly what I want.
Very recently, I generated seven images of a poster I had in my mind for an upcoming show; AI helped me to visualise my thoughts. In 2025, people are also going to use AI in everyday life. For instance, instead of
Googling a ‘good restaurant near me’, which will show a lot of links, and you have to go through each of them, collate the information and then make a final decision, AI can quickly tell you names. Recently, I read the news of governments using AI cameras to save elephants from being run-down by trains when they cross railway tracks in Karnataka. If used efficiently, AI can ease life. However one should also be watchful as when in the wrong hands, it can create problems like deepfakes.
Compiled by Paramita Ghosh, Priyamvada Rana