PACKING UP THE YEAR

AS THE YEAR WRAPS UP, TMS SPEAKS TO EMINENT DELHIITES, WHO BROUGHT INTERESTING FILMS, BOOKS, MUSIC, ART AND CULTURE INTO OUR LIVES IN 2025, FOR A PEEK INTO WHAT WENT BEHIND THE SCENES, AND THEIR PLANS FOR THE NEW YEAR

- (COMPILED BY PARAMITA GHOSH)

NEHA DIXIT, AUTHOR, THE MANY LIVES OF SYEDA X

"THIS year, I am going to rearrange my library.

There are some books that I read every yearThe Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, and a couple of old magazine articles from India Today and Time from the 1990s, whose hard covers I have saved. I plan to put all of these on the same shelf because they save me every time I face a writing block. I also plan to hoard less and hand over all the duplicate copies of my favourite books to friends.

Last year, I bought several short story collections Tamil, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, and Kashmiri translated into English. I also bought short stories by Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto and finish all these books by March. I plan to read at least three short stories every day. I am also going to finish reading Caste Pride by Manoj Mitta, The Believer's Dilemma by Abhishek Chadhury, and Hindi Heartland by Ghazala Wahab by May. For the rest of the year, I want to finish one book in three days, just like in my college days. Hope that happens!

SHALINI PASSI, ART PATRON AND ENTREPRENEUR

NEXT year, I want to approach life the way I approach art - intentionally, with space to breathe.