As the year draws to a close, let us rewind and revisit the stories that you loved in Spectrum, The Tribune's Sunday magazine, this year - the stories that made you chuckle, the stories that made you cry, the stories that inspired, the stories that stayed.

Here is a curated list from our team to make your holiday reading list.

Happy New Year.

Om, my friend

Here's what renowned actor Naseeruddin Shah wrote remembering his friend, Om Puri, on his 75th birth anniversary. "He was one of the funniest people I have known. If there was pain and anger, there was also mischief and a wicked sense of humour."

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/features/om-my-friend-naseeruddin-shahs-tribute-to-the-late-om-puri-on-his-75th-birth-anniversary/

Celebrating Raag Darbaari

On the birth centenary of Hindi novelist Shrilal Shukla, Gillian Wright, who translated his classic novel 'Raag Darbari' into English, recalled catching the overnight train to Lucknow 30 years ago, booking into a cheap hotel near the railway station and then taking a tonga to the Indiranagar home of Shrilal Shukla and his wife Girija. "They would welcome me and, over tea and biscuits, I would sit with the great man and ask all the questions I had about the task I had in hand - translating his classic Hindi novel of the 1960s, 'Raag Darbari'."

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/a-tribute-to-hindi-novelist-shrilal-shukla-on-his-birth-centenary/

Articulation of loss

As images of flood displacement and resilience echoed over North India, theatre director Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry reminded us how loss and grief are not moments to shy away from for an artist, but to dive into - finding shared humanity in the wreckage. "From William Kentridge's shadowy processions to Joan Didion's raw memoirs, from Dinabandhu Mitra's incendiary plays to Saadat Hasan Manto's piercing stories, and the multilingual narratives of the play 'Hunkaro' - artists have long wielded their craft as a mirror to reflect the chaos of human existence and a hammer to shape its meaning," she wrote.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/features/articulation-of-loss/

Emergency Diaries

To mark 50 years of Emergency, musician Madan Gopal Singh recalled those days of critical challenge that showed them how to stand with uncompromising courage. They thought the scars would heal in time. Perhaps, they did, or simply entered a new masquerade where there are no easy closures. In retrospect, they look very slight in comparison with where we stand today.

Why the gods are angry

Sonali Gupta wrote how Kullu's gods are not passive ornaments but temperamental stakeholders with an eye for accountability. Their displeasure has always found earthly expression - through withheld rain, untimely storms, or landslides that conveniently target unauthorised constructions. As disasters have multiplied, forests thinned, and glaciers shrunk, at Jagatipat temple, Kullu's 'sacred parliament' convened

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/as-modernity-and-human-greed-test-divine-patience-the-angry-gods-are-gathering-for-a-sacred-council-at-jagatipat/

The Test

As Shubman Gill became India's Test captain at 25, Pradeep Magazine reminded us how he shoulders a responsibility that very few of his age have been tasked with. For inspiration, there's always Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi - captain at 21, whose name for some reason is no longer associated with the India-England trophy.

A walk on the wild side

Several years ago, former diplomat Shyam Saran had read French mountaineer-explorer Maurice Herzog's immensely popular and gripping first-person account of his pioneering expedition to the Annapurna North peak, one of the highest known peaks in the Himalayan range, in 1950, three years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzin Norgay scaled Mount Everest. Shyam Saran undertook a trek to Annapurna North Base Camp this year. Doing it in the 75th anniversary year of Maurice Herzog's pioneering expedition made it extra special.