I WOULD describe 2012 as the year of two extremes - the both good and the bad. Putting a stumble into words that can further elaborate the story I am about to tell is sometimes not the easiest taskbut when the hand becomes the beholder of the pen, there is no telling what the end result will be.

WITHIN the past 30 days, I spent a bit of time in four countries: Ethiopia, South Africa, Namibia, and finally France where I currently find myself. With the exception of one country, the unfavourable global economic environment has marked the politico-economic conversation in three of these countries adversely.

WHEN holidays are here, women work harder than when it is the regular time of the year. My husband and kids look forward to holidays, but, at times, I don’t. From this point of view, holidays mean more cooking and cleaning up, more arrangements to be made, more plans to be sorted, more guests to be served, more drunk relatives to steer away from the bar, more laundry to be done, more noise and confusion around the house and more things that have to be taken out and then, put away.

There is a definite cultural divide regarding the care of pets – it is the doggie divide. My perspective that pets are members of the family is different from my husband’s village/farm- influenced point of view.