Gratitude…
Here’s hoping that you had a great start to 2025. My ‘New Year’ was a little subdued - no party, no music or dance, no celebration with friends …. Just the steady hum of the Oxygen Concentrator & the BiPAP machine as 2025 rolled in - these are the 2 machines that my father has been dependent on for more than a week now. But it is in moments like these - you are forced to take a pause and reflect with gratitude on the things you have and the fortune one is
blessed with.
My father - a long term COPD patient - paid a visit to his old friend in Bangalore who was celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately there he developed a nasty case of pneumonia that landed him in the ICU. With his entire family support structure in Delhi / NCR - it was his old family friend who got him to hospital / pulled all the strings / stabilised / took immense care of him ….Till we got to Bangalore.
Now, after more than a week in hospital, my dad is out of hospital, but he is not in a condition to fly to Delhi. So we have him recuperating at the same friend's house - who has made everything available to us. With me on guard just incase anything goes south.
Gratitude seeing this level of friendships that my parents have - spanning decades - with so much richness and depth (something to aspire for in today's age of flakiness) Gratitude for being able to take care of dad when he needed it - to get him the best medical care - of having the elbow room to put The Deshbhakt on a rare hold and ensure that dad is atleast stable before resuming work. It's in moments like these when u thank your stars for a solid family and friend circle.
In the professional front - over the last few days, I got a chance to rummage over the incredible support we got in 2024, (a year when India narrowly missed becoming a one party democracy) Gratitude for the faith that subscribers have put on us - to make Deshbhakt a 5 million strong channel on Youtube (with a BILLION views coming up soon) Gratitude to EVERY deshbhakt member - past / present - on Patreon.com/thedeshbhakt or here on Youtube - each one of you have played a KEY role to keep us alive and growing. We know that you have our back and it means a lot - never having to bend to market forces or ‘requests’ from shady parties. Special mention to our Ultimate Deshbhakt members - who have nothing but the wish that India shines bright and that the right information reaches to people.
Gratitude also for all the hate / bile / abuse we get on a daily basis - for 6 years it has been a privilege to spit facts, satire and data on the faces of haters and watch them squirm, froth and rant … for without that ranting / abuse and trolling we would never have got the engagement to grow as much as we did!!! :)))
(And we will be making a lot more folks uncomfortable in 2025 with more facts / satire and data)
Finally gratitude for all of you believing in the mission of Deshbhakt - to create a lot more aware and proactive citizens who question the wrongs and fight to make India a truly progressive, inclusive & constitutional democracy. For 6 years we have strived to deliver factual content and break down complex issues. In 2025 India will face a lot more headwinds as the true nature and depth of our economic crisis is exposed. There will be a lot more distraction into the past and ‘others’ that will take place - a lot more attempts to discredit voices of reason and logic - and sadly the spirit of debate and discussion will shrink further with people refusing to admit their mistakes.
Though all this mess - we will continue to do what we have done for years now. We aim to be even more brutal with the facts, more biting with the satire and more in-depth with the data. If you have some ideas for The Deshbhakt - do share it in the comments below. The good, the bad, the ugly is all welcome !!!!
Akash Banerjee
For Team Deshbhakt
1st of January, 2025.
