I have a rendezvous with death
At some disputed barricade.

The words of American poet Alan Seeger best describe the world's collective experience in the year 2001. Destruction, death and dispute-in the 26 years of India Today's existence, there has never been a year so full of these. It began with the earthquake in Gujarat and did not relent right up to last week when suicide bombers targeted the Indian Parliament. In between came the horrific royal massacre in Nepal, the suicide bomb outside the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and, of course, September 11.

The overpowering memory of the attack on the World Trade Center, the motif for 2001, should not be allowed to obliterate the tragedy and turbulence India has witnessed in the past 12 months.

The events overseas have focused attention away from domestic issues where the picture remains grim. Following the attack on Parliament, uncertainty and tension have returned to the neighbourhood and the prospect of war remains very real. Away from politics, economic expectation turned into economic disappointment as the recession took a very strong hold on all business.

There is, though, one optimistic note-particularly in Afghanistan where the brutal Taliban regime has been overthrown and the back of terrorism broken. If the Indian Government does its work well, American interest in the subcontinent should translate into benefits for our country in its own war against terrorism.

In 2001, India and the world have all been through hell and back. Our year-end issue was five weeks in the making. A team of editors had to sift through more than 7,000 photographs to pick the images that defined the year. It was not, they assure me, a pleasant task at all. There will be little nostalgia about 2001. All that can be wished for now is that we never see the likes of it again.

(Aroon Purie)