The rescue of 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara tunnel for more than 16 days was the icing on a very large cake. There will probably be a one-off episode of Mann ki Baat dedicated to this in the coming year but, until that happens, I wanted to mention it because of how it capped another amazing year for India. It was another year in which we did more things, and built more things and won more things than most other countries combined. I don’t want to get into specifics, but I hope you get the picture.

In fact, while writing this last column of 2023, I was overwhelmed with a strange sensation of how ordinary it now feels: to document this unending list of successes we have begun taking for granted. I also realised how boastful it was starting to sound, to proclaim time and again that India is now undeniably the world’s most successful country. I wonder when the rest of the world will tire of losing.