The 2026 Playbook

The past year has imbued us with important lessons that pave the path for our rejuvenated, refreshed, and resolute selves in the new year

- SHUTAPA PAUL

Between anxiety about tomorrow and exhaustion from yesterday, 2026 begins with lessons in surrender, strength, kindness and the quiet courage to begin again

On the first day of the new year, I witnessed the miracle of birth. At a family farmstay, somewhere in the middle of India, an unfamiliar and heavily pregnant cow had wandered onto the grassy lands. When no one came to claim her for days, the local farmer and his wife took to caring for her. A few more days passed, and most auspiciously on the first day of 2026, the cow finally gave birth to a beautiful white and brown speckled calf with the softest skin. And guess who, by sheer chance, witnessed it all? Me! I beheld the spectacle from a vantage point; first quite unsure as to what was really happening, and then to be pleasantly surprised by the inelegant, yet equally magical, almost squirting out of another living being. A common sight for the farming community I'm sure, but for acity dweller like me, such a happening was wondrous to behold.