Aamir Khan

Javed Habib and co. are in for sleepless nights. There’s a new barber on the block, and he’s called Aamir Khan. After Ghajini, which had him sport a hairstyle that looked like the furrowed fields of rural India, the actor has been going around the country armed with shears in an incredible promotional campaign, catching fans and chopping off their locks. The year 2009 could just see Aamir Khan evolve into the coolest nai (or hairstylist, to be politically correct) in India, regardless of how many millions of rupees Ghajini finally manages to rake in. The eight-pack barber has arrived. Roll over, Sassoon.

Rahul Gandhi

The scion of the Gandhi dynasty demonstrated in and out of Parliament earlier this year that his heart beat for Kalawati and Shashikala. Promptly, the state machinery swung into action, to stress that its heart too beat for them, bestowing largesse on the two befuddled village women. Next year, the Amethi MP — so far known more for his dimples and a certain penchant for Latina women — may zero in on a couple of more hapless women in India who, in turn, may find their lives changing. That will be four down, about 700 million more to go. But then the man is still young.

Sania Mirza

The current year saw her acquire a swanky Mercedes Benz, and — surprise, surprise —even an honorary doctorate degree from a Chennai university. But now that tennis star Sania Mirza says she’s back to kicking form, maybe she ought to back it all up with that long-elusive victory on the tennis court? While she won’t choose to remember 2008 for her nagging injuries, forfeitures and string of losses (including an eminently forgettable performance at the Beijing Olympics), 2009 promises to begin on a good note for the Hyderabad girl. She’s been given a direct entry into the Australian Open in January, and her peers, including Mahesh Bhupathi, have expressed their faith in her. All that’s required now is a victory or two. Her sponsors are waiting.

Ekta Kapoor

This has been a bad year for India’s soap queen. Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, it transpires, are tired of the K serial to beat all serials, Kyunki etc etc. After the mega show’s TRP ratings dropped, STAR channel decided that it had had enough of the family saga where moms were kind or cruel, daughters were subservient or rebellious, sons were reborn or not reborn, and audiences were bored. The show, which started in 2000, went off the air in November, but the head honcho of Balaji Films has her platter full with all kinds of series. In 2009, she will put all those emotions in the cauldron — from envy and love to hatred and intrigue — and come out with a new brew for Indian TV viewers. Kyunki, they want it.

Manmohan Singh

In 2009, Dr Saab is going to invest in an atlas. It’s election year, and for the first time India’s most famous Sardar — after Khushwant Singh, of course — will be fighting an election leading from the front. And this time, the economist-turned-politician may want to choose a safe constituency for himself. Manmohan Singh, who’s so far fought — and lost — an election from South Delhi, has a Rajya Sabha seat in Parliament. If only he could fight from Delhi’s India International Centre — the headquarters of all bureaucrats!

P. Chidambaram

Path-breaking economic policies are what finance-turned-home minister P. Chidambaram is best known for. Ask the impoverished farmers, whom he relieved of mounting debts earlier this year, or the tax evaders, who are now meekly coughing up the stashed moolah thanks to his tough laws. But now that he has stepped into colleague Shivraj Patil’s shoes, the question everyone’s asking is whether the man in priestly white will finally make the terrorists see red next year. Prohibitive duties on RDX, maybe? Will troublemakers drop their guns and line up to file their tax returns? Will P.C. regale the terror troop with lines from Subramania Bharathi? Will he repeat those reassuring words — Main Hoon Na — to India’s troubled citizens? Stay logged in, P.C.-style.

Nandan Nilekani

Last heard, he had enforced a slew of cost-cutting measures at his offices in Infosys. And if things don’t improve soon, more cuts may be slated to follow. So will all this affect IT honcho Nandan Nilekani’s earnings in 2009? No way! A man has to do what he can do, and Nilekani has just proved to the world that he is as fluent with words as he is with computer codes. Imagining India, his non-fictional take on his motherland, is flying off the bookshelves faster than store computers can register their sales. If the recession continues, Nilekani can turn full-time author next year. It beats the pink slip.

N.D. Tiwari

Late in the evening of his life, Andhra governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari gets a jolt from the past. And 2009 is not going to be easy for the old-school Congress loyalist and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Tiwari is battling a paternity suit filed by lawyer Rohit Shekhar who says he is his son out of wedlock — a claim that the governor stoutly rejects. So you may expect to see the venerable governor in and out of court in the coming year. Or, of course, you may finally hear the word ‘Papa’ in that stately old house in Hyderabad.

Salman Rushdie

In 2007, there was Padma Lakshmi. In 2008, it almost happened to be Riya Sen. So come 2009, and there’s no saying how many of those eligible enchantresses — from Florence to fashionville — will click their stilettos in a mad rush to nestle themselves in the arms of Salman Rushdie, the iconic and flamboyant writer with a pronounced taste for arm candy. So any guesses who the Midnight’s Child will settle for as his chosen companion in 2009? The race is still wide open. But the one who finally pips the others to the post, er, arm, will have a lot more ego to massage than Padma Lakshmi needed to do way back in 2004. The 64-year-old charmer, after all, is now two books older. And he is now an actor — albeit an extra — to boot.

Prakash Karat

And there you were thinking that Prakash Karat was a shy and retiring man? In 2008, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) demonstrated that he wasn’t just a dragon slayer but quite a lady killer too. The man, clearly, has a fondness for firebrand women politicians. He is married to one — Brinda Karat is known to march into areas where both angels and devils fear to tread. And now he is hobnobbing with two regional prima donnas, J. Jayalalithaa and Mayawati. The coming year promises to be a busy one for the Marxist who led his party into withdrawing support to the Congress-led government last summer. In 2009, Karat may like to woo some other loose cannons. There is always Mamata Banerjee — yes, she is the Opposition, but Karat likes these tough assignments. And then Karat can look westwards. There is someone called Sarah Palin there.

Anbumani Ramadoss

The health minister continued 2008 pretty much in the same vein as the year earlier —courting controversy. But not all of it had to do with his bete noire, AIIMS director P. Venugopal. From requesting Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on TV to refrain from smoking in private (an offer SRK politely declined) to a proposed ban on showing smoking ads in movies and TV shows, to banning smoking in public spaces and advocating a crackdown on surrogate advertising of alcoholic products, the man is now the flag-bearer of the ban brigade. In 2009, the minister may troop around before the elections, parading his basket full of bans and wondering if there’s anything left untouched. How about a ban on breathing? Going by all those nasty suspended particles in the air, it can be injurious to your health too.

Illustrations: Suman Choudhury