50 reasons 2016 completely sucked!

Alan Rickman passed away on January 14, 2016.

Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died in a freak accident.

Aleppo went from ancient bustling city to one of the greatest human rights tragedies of our time.

Carrie Fisher suffered a heart attack while on a flight. She died a few days later on December 27.

Pakistani actors were asked to leave the country, following the Uri attacks. Fawad Khan's special appearance in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil became a cause célèbre for right-wing fundamentals and the ensuing controversy revealed the petty face of Indian politics.

Legendary performer David Bowie passed away in January after a long battle with cancer.

Donald Trump became the president of the USA.

Britain voted to leave the European Union. Brexit was largely met with criticism because of it was steeped in xenophobia and was likely to have a negative impact on global economy.

The ugly spat between Kangana Ranaut and Hrithik Roshan had all the makings of a Bollywood potboiler, including allegations of mental illnesses, black magic and stalking.

George Michael's sudden death on Christmas day killed the spirit of the holiday season.

The mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando showed us that aggressive homophobia was still rampant in the west, simultaneously highlighting the pressing need for gun control regulations in the US.

The ISIS attack in Jakarta was only one of the heinous acts of terror that shook 2016. The list of all the terror incidents that happened this year is abysmally long.

Harambe, the silverback gorilla of Cincinnati zoo, had to be killed to rescue a three-year-old child who had fallen into his enclosure. The world rallied together in the only way it knows how, by creating insufferable memes asking for justice for Harambe.

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, died this year.

A titan of Tamil Nadu politics, chief minister Jayalalitha passed away causing the whole state to stand still in mourning.

Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali passed away this year.

If we needed another reason to be terrified of all things clown, this was it. Several 'killer clowns' were seen across America causing widespread panic. Even though there were no casualties reported, nobody will ever look at Ronald McDonald the same way.

Pierce Brosnan endorsed Pan Bahar, a mouth freshener with ingredients that have been linked to causing cancer, causing a meltdown of the Indian internet. He later said that he had no idea what he was getting into and in no way supports the brand. 

Not only did professional Twitter troll and slut-shamer Chetan Bhagat release a book on feminism, it went on to become the highest selling novel in the country. 

The Censor Board's heavy-handed treatment of Udta Punjab made more news than the movie itself. It awakened India to the sobering reality that freedom of speech is still under threat. 

Singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen passed away in November.

Another incident that made us question just how much freedom actually exists in our principle of 'freedom of speech', the Tanmay Bhatt Snapchat controversy was as ridiculous as it was ugly. 

Newly crowned moral policeman Bhupendra Choubey made every thinking human squirm with his failed attempt to slut-shame Sunny Leone. Thankfully, the country rallied behind the actress and called Choubey out on his pseudo journalism.  

Purple Rain singer Prince died of an overdose in August.

The Zika virus spread across North America, South America, the Pacific islands and parts of Southeast Asia, causing neurological abnormalities and birth defects in babies. 

To review the year that was 2016, a blatantly sexist and racist reality TV star has become the most powerful man in the world and we cared more about the passing of a gorilla than the deaths of thousands of Syrians. With the clash of Censor Board v/s Udta Punjab, our freedom of speech was challenged repeatedly by seemingly offended radicals looking to further their own political cause.

We were made to prove our patriotism by forcibly watching the national anthem played before movies in theatres and were beaten up when we did or could not comply. Most of our currency was rendered useless and our days became an endless wait outside ATMs and banks.

Our politicians cared more about what Tanmay Bhatt was Snapchatting than more pressing causes, like the drought in Maharashtra or maybe the increasing violence against women in the country. A gun-toting madman went on a shooting spree in a gay nightclub in Orlando and we still had some people applauding the 'braveheart' for doing the work of God. 

2016 also brought the topic of consent in sexual relationships to light. It turned out that some people still needed to be taught the meaning on 'no', despite all the progress we assumed we had made.

We lost several important cultural icons, including David Bowie, Prince, Harper Lee, Leonard Cohen and Muhammad Ali.

Every time we asked the universe whether 2016 could get any worse, the year proved that it, in fact, can and how as proven by our gallery (above).

2016. Please. Stop.

Delhi disappeared behind a thick layer of smog in November when pollution levels in the city rose alarmingly, with respiratory illnesses being reported in large numbers. 

2016 was not a good year to be in love. Celebrity couples were breaking up faster than you can say 'Brangelina', making us question everything we ever believed about true love because if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can't make it, then what's the hope for us?

This picture of an old man breaking down in tears, published in Hindustan Times, summarised the negative effect of the government's blitzkrieg on black money. Reports of deaths due to non-admittance in hospitals, a direct result of demonetisation, and casualties in altercations outside banks and ATMs started coming in soon after the announcement. Over 90 deaths have been reported as of now.

Our celebrity-obsessed hearts were hardened by all that we endured in 2016, so we could bear the shock of another high-profile relationship biting the dust. But when Johnny Depp and Amber Heard filed for a divorce and Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse, all our illusions about the man that we've crushed on ever since we could make sense of the universe were shattered mercilessly. After a long media trial, the case was settled outside of court and Heard donated her settlement money to charity.

We didn't know we needed another shudder-inducing beauty trend (live scorpion nail art, remember?) but as 2016 had already demonstrated, things didn't go our way. When models wore furry nails, to keep their cuticles warm we assume, down the Libertine Fall/Winter 2016 show, nobody could have predicted the trend taking off the way it did on Instagram. 

A plane crashed in the mountains outside Colombia after running out of fuel. 71 people were reported dead, including most of the Brazil's Chapecoense Football club, and there were only 6 survivors. After investigations it was reported that the crash was due to negligence by the airline company and the pilot. 

Another aviation disaster happened on Christmas day, when a Russian jet crashed into the Black Sea killing all 92 passengers and crew members. The flight also had the official Russian military choir on board. 

Thousands of cases of eye injuries were reported in Kashmir, after the armed forces began using pellet guns to disperse crowds protesting military presence in the city. The patients, who were more often than not children below the ages of 14, suffered from permanent eye damage due to the lead pellets. 

If you were a human being and a basketball fan, 2016 was an even worse year for you than the rest. Legends Kobe Bryant and LeBron James announced their retirement from the sport. While Bryant retired because "it was all he had to give", James cited the "corruptness in NBA" as his reason. 

Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in Paris, while attending the Fashion Week in October. Kim was reportedly gagged and her hands were tied as three armed robbers took off with jewellery worth over 8 million euros. While most of the internet expressed horror and indignation over Kim K's ordeal, a large part of the internet decided to shame her on her ostentatious lifestyle and declared that she was clearly asking for it.

Scarily enough, a similar thing happened with our own Mallika Sherawat. The actress and her French boyfriend were attached by masked men who sprayed them with tear gas while attempting to steal Sherawat's bag. She was shaken badly, but suffered no physical damage.

Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has been banned from playing tennis for two years after she failed a drug test during the Australian Open in January. 

Pro football player Lionel Messi and his father received a 21 months prison sentence after being found guilty of tax evasion. But because of their lack of any previous criminal record and since the sentence was less than two years, Messi and his father would not go to jail, but would pay the fine (of nearly $2 million) and would serve the time under probation. 

The editor of Italian Vogue and a prominent fashion icon Franca Sozzani passed away earlier this month.

If you were spared from the Pokemon GO hysteria, then good for you. The players swarming the parks and every possible public space in the hunt for elusive Pokemons were enough to set your teeth on edge, but things took a turn for the worse when several deaths started being reported across the world. The statistics of traffic accidents because of this increased exponentially with cases of the players being mugged and robbed while hunting down Pokemon in parks adding to the list. A couple in Arizona went as far as to abandon their child in their quest to 'catch em all' and were subsequently arrested on child neglect charges.

Fifty-one men were arrested for their involvement in a massive paedophilia ring in Norway. The police confiscated over 150 TB of data, including clips, pictures and chat transcripts, showing abuse of children of all ages, including babies. This is considered to be one of the worst cases of sexual abuse in the country.

Our patriotism is so easily threatened that we need to declare our love and respect for India every single second of the day. If we fail to do so, we'll be penalised and beaten up by the self-appointed Patriotism Patrol.

Wheelchair-bound activist Salil Chaturvedi learned this lesson first hand when he remained seated while the national anthem played in a movie theatre. He was physically assaulted by an angry couple. The affronted pair failed to fathom how the nationalism couldn't make the paralysed-from-waist-down Chaturvedi miraculously stand up and prove he was an Indian. Despite this incident, playing the national anthem is now mandatory in movie theatres.

Giving a whole new meaning to the term 'explosive launch', Samsung Galaxy Note 7 across the world started to spontaneously burst into flames after being plugged onto their chargers. After over 30 cases were reported across the world, Samsung had to recall every single piece sold, that accounted for about 1 million of the 2 million manufactured. It has now become a government mandated regulation for passengers to not carry their Note 7 phones in flights.

Tesla's self-driving car had its first fatality this year when a man in Florida, Joshua Brown, died after a collision with a trailer. The car's auto-pilot mode has been a much talked about development in the auto industry. The software's potential is still not fully uncovered and the manufacturers have been advising people to still be cautious if going into the auto pilot mode. In the case of Brown, the car's sensors failed to distinguish between a trailer and an 18-wheel truck crossing the highway, resulting in the accident.

Tensions between police and the African-American community worsened after videos documenting blatant police brutality started popping up all over social media. Over 194 black people have died at the hands of the police this year alone, sparking protests across the country. 

For years we had unshaken faith in our version of royalty, the Tatas. But 2016 tested our resolve on this front too. Ratan Tata ousted Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of the board of Tata sons and thus began a long and bitter public feud between the Tatas and Mistry. India's most respected family fell prey to media speculations about the unceremonious move and divided the country's corporate sector into two warring camps. 

Turkey's military attempted a coup in July to overthrow president Tayyip Erdogan, but were thwarted when Erdogan's supporters swarmed the streets clashing with the armed forces. Over 190 people died and thousands have been reported as injured now that the government has claimed the coup to be "90% over". The top military brass felt that Erdogan was not upholding the country's secular foundation and decided to take control, resulting in the clash. 

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte likened himself to Hitler after declaring war on the 3 million drug users and peddlers in the country. Since his appointment in June, Duterte has already ordered the execution of over 3,000 alleged drug users and dealers and is now under investigation for the increasing number of killings in the country under his regime by the UN.

The iconic, and perhaps the most well-known architect Zaha Hadid passed away in March.

All the major holidays, including Diwali and Christmas, fell on weekends depriving us of our much needed (and God-given right) to have the opportunity to sleep in on a weekday. Grave injustice, 2016 #NeverForget.

Stanford University student Brock Turner raped an unconscious woman and in return, received a mild rap on the wrist in the form of a light 6-month long prison sentence and three years of probation. The judge claimed that a harsher sentence would ruin Turner's life and future prospects. As a response to this, the victim read a letter in the court describing the rape in harrowing detail and her struggle to survive with the whispers of people putting the blame on her intoxicated state for the assault. This case also brought the woeful lack of understanding of consent to light. 

So we've done irreversible damage to the planet and we're basically doomed. This is not us talking, it's scientists and researchers, most notably Stephen Hawking. The carbon dioxide levels of Earth have reached 400 parts per million, and as of 2016 , there is no turning back from this. The last time the CO2 levels were this high, humans did not exist.