One of the advantages of being in one of the very last time zones is that you get to go last if you want to. And so it is that I bid farewell to 2020, this most disastrous of years, with all of you well into your 2021s.

This thread was meant to be a much longer post - of gratitude, frustrations, learnings, challenges, change. But like everything else touched by this dratted year, it has now morphed into a last minute salvage operation.

So here's what I am thankful for. For quizzes, which I attended and conducted across time zones and continents - like some renegade ageing T20 player who discovers that borders are not a bar anymore. And I am sure many of you found your quizzing equivalent online too.

For other people. This was the year when we finally found out that we couldn't take other people for granted. Where we waited and watched our WhatsApp messages just for that one response. And went on hikes unprepared and waved at acquaintances turned best friends from cars.

Hell is not other people. Hell is the absence of other people.

For plants. Little seeds growing into saplings and green plants. Tomatoes that never showed up and Zucchini flowers that never turned to fruit. And all the different house plants that crept, climbed, and showed off on our Zoom calls.

For music. The lovely songs that came out this year, the polls and hashtag games we played with our memories, the music from all the series (Family Man and Local Train, I love you ), the Carnatic season that managed to find a way to press on in the midst of a pandemic.

For the Great Outdoors. This year more than any year - after being locked up at home for days at a time until time and calendars lost all meaning - I came to truly appreciate and be thankful for the outdoors. For sunsets, trees, the smell of the rain, a golden sunset.

For understanding. It was really late into the year before I understood that all the people "ghosting" on WhatsApp and not answering email were not doing it because they liked me less than their other friends - they were trying their best to just stay above water, just like me.

For packages and gifts. And for delivery people. They literally brought the world into our houses for most of this year - groceries, food, memories, and joy. And all this at great personal risk to themselves.

For you. This is true of most years, but more true this year than most. There is just no way I could have made it through this terrible disaster year without Twitter and all of the memes, music, discussions, debates, and TILs. From elections to pandemics and disaster and death.

So as I leave 2020 and look forward to a better 2021, I am anxious and curious and hopeful. But mostly, I am grateful for having made it through this Time in our Lives.

I lived through 2020.