The factual anthem of the 2011 Cricket World Cup might have been the unimpressive track penned by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, but Team India clearly had only one anthem on their lips throughout the tournament – “We want to win it for Sachin”. From Zaheer to Gambhir, Bhajji to Kohli – practically the whole team credited their motivation to lift the trophy to the master blaster. National pride and a quest for cricketing excellence came a distant second.

Man of the Tournament, Yuvraj Singh even went to the extent of trying to create a bit of buzz around it by quoting early in the tournament that he was playing for a certain special someone in his life. Much space in the media was devoted to speculation on who that ‘special’ person was. After the final he revealed that it was none other than Sachin. But of course.

True to form, when India finally lifted the cup the team hoisted Tendulkar on their shoulders for their victory lap around the ground. Fairytale stuff indeed.

2011’s online sensation was in no doubt Govind Tiwari. The young man from Allahabad emerged from complete obscurity with his blog- http://govindtiwari.blogspot.com/ that caught the imagination of India’s netizens. The blog that was unearthed out of nowhere soon went viral on the web and began trending like nobody’s business on Twitter.

Suddenly anyone and everyone knew who Govind Tiwari was. His webpage’s main highlight was flashing stars and an overdose of multimedia features added to multiple photos of himself that among other things enabled his eyes to blink. All of this was accompanied with kitschy background music. The unlikely celebrity’s self-proclaimed aim was ‘for making good friend’.  Whether it was the sheer tackiness of the site or the creator’s ingenuity, Govind Tiwari definitely got more than his 15 minutes of fame.

If 2011 will be remembered for one reason in India it might well be the movement against corruption. In Anna Hazare, the common man found their hero. Even those who didn’t agree with his method had nothing but admiration for the cause.

Soon sporting a ‘Anna topi’ became a status symbol and the words etched on them - ‘I am Anna’ quickly caught on as the catchphrase of the movement. It represented showing solidarity with the ‘modern Mahatma’ and the struggle he gave voice to.

Our country’s politicians have taken it upon them to rename everything from cities to railway stations to maybe even the local paanwala’s shanty. How then could state names be set in stone? At an all party meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee decided to leave her imprint by renaming the state as ‘Poshcim Bongo’. This was apparently intended to distance the state from its colonial heritage and bolster its dignity.

We’re not sure about the bolstering dignity bit but the new name went beyond becoming the topic of water cooler conversations. It drew extreme reactions including ridicule and outrage from Bengalis and non-Bengalis alike. The verdict was pretty clear – Bongo was clearly wrong-o.

2011 saw the passing away of several big names, but the most talked about amongst them all was Apple’s co-founder, chairman and CEO – Steve Jobs. He died from complications arising out of his long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jobs was regarded a visionary, a creative genius and a pioneer when it came to the personal computer industry. He was considered to be someone who had changed the shape of the modern world and his death spawned tributes from all and sundry. Common to them all was the use of ‘i’ - the letter and word that not only represented all Apple products like the ipod, the iphone and the ipad but also Steve Jobs himself.

Royal weddings were clearly the flavour of the year what with Kate and William, The Prince of Monaco’s marriage to an Olympic swimmer and The King of Bhutan’s wedding with a young beautiful commoner.

The one name however who even overtook Her Royal Highness Kate Middleton in the popularity stakes was none other than her younger sister Pippa. The maid of honour at the wedding of the decade was the cynosure of all eyes. Her style and demeanour (not to mention her rear hugging dress) won her many fans and soon enough she became the darling of the tabloids. The party planner nicknamed ‘Her Royal Hotness’ continued to make news through the year  -  her presence at the French open, leaked pictures of her partying in a bra, her break up with beau and ex-cricketer Alex Loudon  and even her alleged flirting with Prince Harry – everything became a subject for discussion. And the world had a new muse.

For a family that usually holds a grouse with the media, the Bachchans do their fair bit in encouraging the intrusiveness, so to speak. Amitabh Bachchan chose to go public on his Twitter stream with news of daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai’s pregnancy and this triggered a whole gamut of wishes/ jokes/ one-liners on the impending Bachchan.

Chief among them was this one from funnyman Ramesh Srivats’: “Bachchan Household: Three generations of Bachchans – BigB, WannaB, and now BayB.”

The BayB tag stuck, with both the public and media picking up on it in their day-by-day, minute-by-minute dissection of Ash’s new arrival. So much so that proud papa Abhishek Bachchan (aided by starlet Shahana Goswami) went one-up on it and christened the baby girl as Beti B till they officially named her.

With scams and scandals being the order of the day, the most popular destination for India’s movers and shakers turned out to be Tihar Jail.

It’s well known inmates in 2011 included former Telecom minister A Raja, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi - both for their roles in the 2G Spectrum scam, Suresh Kalmadi for corruption during the Commonwealth Games and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. Why even social activist Anna Hazare was forced to pay a visit to India’s most well known jail. With so much VIP activity in one place, it’s no wonder that Tihar turned out to be the most talked about location in India this year.

‘Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di?’ Chances are this song and its tune is ringing in your ears. The catchy part Tamil/ part English track is from an upcoming Tamil flick ‘3’ that stars Danush and Shruti Hassan and is directed by Danush’s wife and Rajnikanth’s daughter Aishwarya.

The song was leaked onto the web and that was when its creators decided to come out with an official promotional video of it. In no time, ‘kolaveri’ went viral in cyberspace and garnered over 3 lakh hits within a week on Youtube. The track became a pan-Indian sensation after being shared umpteen times on social networking sites.

What was meant to be a silly song with silly lyrics left scores of people wondering what ‘kolaveri’ actually meant. It’s literal translation is ‘murderous rage’ but the people behind the song insist that the words in the song are just meant to be a funny way of a boy expressing anguish over being dumped.

If the year ended with the nation humming Kolaveri, then it began with them asking D K Bose to run for it. The song ‘D K Bose’ belonged to the Aamir Khan production ‘Delhi Belly’ and though it sounded like a common Bengali surname it was also a play on a popular North Indian expletive.

That was enough to create a controversy, but the racy and cheeky track soon became a youth anthem. Some of the reasons behind its popularity included the quirky lyrics, the innuendos hidden within, and the grunge rock tempo to it.