There’s a new serial on ABC called Flash Forward where the entire world blacks out for a little over 2 minutes. During the black out they all have a flash-forward of what they will be doing on April 29, 2101. When those crucial moments pass, the world is a state of chaos, of course, but slowly survivors realize there now they have something in common with every other human being in the world. “What did you see,” becomes the new ice-breaker.

As 2009 comes to an end, that ice-breaker may well be “How did you cope?” The global recession affected everybody, whether through immediate personal calamity, or news from a loved one or friend that they had lost their jobs, lost their health insurance, had to move, had to retrench … in a sense  we are all survivors.

For the year-end issue of India Currents magazine, I’d like to feature some of your stories. How did you survive 2009? What tips would you like to share? What are your strategies to cope with the fairly bleak scenario for next year?

Send me your stories via comments here or to editor (at) indiacurrents.com. I’ll put up some of the best ones in the December issue.