The New Year Resolution

Till 1999, my New Year celebration went like this.

• Invite friends home and have a party.*
• Go to a relative’s place and have a party.*
• Aimless drive around the city for a couple of hours… check out the lights, etc., etc., and then have dinner at a good restaurant
• Sit at home and watch TV

*party = Dinner on the table.

Most of the time, it’s a “struggle” to stay awake till 12, unless there is some interesting program on TV. When the clock strikes 12, wish everyone well and then, in about 15 min, crash. This 15 min can extend to about 30 min if we manage to get a call through to/from someone.

In the year 2000, my first year in college, things didn’t change much as I was in Bangalore with my parents. Hostel life… first time out of the house… you miss home, so it’s acceptable to head home and spend time watching TV doing nothing. The second and third years in college (2001 and 2002) were a little different. I don’t know if I can say it was good, as I ended up doing a return journey from Bangalore to Chennai by bus on New Year’s Eve. On 1st Jan 2002 around 2:30am, I still remember seeing the shooting star sitting in the half-empty bus, comfortable in my seat as I had both the seats for myself. This is when I wished that I would spend every New Year in a new place outside home. Now let’s see how things progressed since then.

2003: Chennai

…with my roomy Shiva and his friends from Satyabama College. It was pretty good for a start as we played some pool, had a beer, and drove around Chennai on bikes. The adventure actually started around 12:20am when we returned to Besant Nagar (our home). We realized that the entire Besant Nagar Beach area was blocked for security reasons, and no one could go to the beach. Which means we cannot go to our own house, which was right next to the beach. 🙁

We tried every possible street in our area, and nope… it was all blocked, barricaded, and guarded. Then we had to stay at a friend’s place for the night and head back home the next day morning around 6am. Quite a New Year… at least I was not at home. So the resolution was a success in the first year.

2004: Noida

Got placed in Noida after my ILP in TCS. It’s the first time for me in North India and for Hindi. As I reached Delhi just before Christmas, I was not put in any project. My friends and I were free to move around and explore the place. My Hindi knowledge was restricted to what I had heard from people and movies until then. But that did not hinder me much. Fun has no language barriers! A chilly New Year! No great fun! But we did have our time. Moreover, it was away from home as planned. Another successful year of keeping my 2002 New Year resolution.

2005: Wisconsin

Out of the country for the first time. Five guys left Waukesha County at about 7:30pm without dinner (hoping to get back by 2:30am and have dinner at home). Reached Milwaukee at around 9pm. One of my roomies, Rahul Bondre, had done the homework of what pubs there are, and we decided to go with what he said was good. He had picked two places. We parked our car in a nice place and then started to walk. Trust me… walking at near sub-zero temperature in windy weather is not good, and only God knows what homework he did as we ended up walking from one place to the other and back for almost an hour. (Details for doing the back and forth between pubs are out of scope for this post). Then we reached a point where we decided to get in somewhere. Drove to another place close by, and at around 11:45pm we were at the start of a street. Each shop in that street was nothing but a bar or a pub. The first one was called “Corner Pub.” We decided to start here and then go wherever we wanted and eventually meet up at a particular point at 6am. 🙂

And yes… we all ended at the other end of the street at 6:30am. Things don’t end here. On reaching home we found that we hardly had anything to eat. Empty fridge and cupboards. Typical bachelor’s house… so no complaints. Now this was definitely one memorable New Year! and another successful year of withholding the tradition (2002 resolution).

2006: Mumbai

For some knowledge transition work, I had to go to the TCS SEPZ office. Nice place. It was pretty close to IIT Powai and Hiranandani. I was there at Hiranandani with a friend of mine who was traveling to the US the next day. The crowd was damn good. Just that moving around was a little difficult, and I managed to get hold of a nice vantage point to see and enjoy the crowd. One happening and lively place. Mumbai Rocks! 😀

2007: Dehradun

This was another memorable trip to remember. Stayed at Shrish’s sister’s place in Dehradun, visited Mussoorie, Danolti, and Auli, and went back to Dehradun for New Year’s Eve at a nice hotel. You can read about this entire trip in one of my travelogues—The Great Auli Experience. This completes five successful years of holding on to my New Year resolution.

2008: Singapore

My MBA days… No words to explain. Term 2 for IT was heaven, as we had finished most of the courses in Term 1 itself. My friends and I had a ball of a time on Sentosa Island. It was a foam party! and that too by the beachside. Fireworks at 12 and beer flowing all over. Need I explain more???

2009: Chennai

Looks like my tradition of being in a new place just broke. But nothing to worry about. This was a little different, though I was not in a new place. We went to GRT Grand, then while heading back home (The Tree Story*) and then a party at my house with Glen 😉 made this year rock for me.

*The Tree Story is out of scope for this post.

2010: New York

A project at the last minute, and that too in NY… just couldn’t get any better. Managed to get hold of my batch mate in NY. Though we were in the office till well past 7pm, we managed to make it to Times Square on time. We could have gone to a hundred other places in NY, but we wanted to know what the big deal about this ball drop was all about. Trust me… it’s the worst experience. Those buffoons could have at least kept some display or music to entertain the people who are standing like idiots to watch a ball drop.

Our luck, we had two females to give us company. One was a cute nurse from CA, and the other female was from NY but had never witnessed the ball drop live, so she had also come to know what the big deal was. Incidentally, she ran in the NY midnight marathon the year before. If it were not for these two females, we would have actually given up and gotten out of Times Sq. much before 12. Then I caught up with my cousins who were at 55th and 8th Ave. One awesome place. Thanks to Ashvini for picking the place “Barcelona Bar.” They sell some 100+ varieties of shots. 😀

After spending time with them, my friend Uphar and I got back to Jersey City and continued the fun at my place.

2011: Bandipur, Karnataka

I was afraid I might end up at home and break the New Year code. But I got lucky, as my friend Shrish was ready to check out some nice place for New Year’s Eve. So I decided to create a theme for this New Year – Jungle Theme. Shrish, Apoorva (his wife), Aditya (his kid), and I drove from Bangalore to Bandipur in his car. My car had just completed a Hampi trip and was not in a condition for this trip. The NH13 highway sucked big time and took all the juice out of my poor little car.

We had booked two log huts in a place called Vana Vihar just before the start of the jungle. This was on the 30th December. The next day, we hit Gopalaswamy Betta, then Wayanad, where we did a jungle safari followed by a self-guided night safari in Mudhumalai. We then got back to Bandipur, where a campfire was waiting for us. I should say, a campfire after a very, very long time and away from the city buzz was definitely a good way to celebrate the new year. Will post a separate blog on this trip later. Keep a watch on my Travelogue section.

2012: Edison, New Jersey

One of the best New Year’s! Spent at home with everyone around… Playing & chatting till midnight with some wine. 😉 Can’t ask for more.

2013: Ooty

During college days while visiting Ooty, we (Shrish and I) longed for two things, and this trip made it happen! One, we wanted to ride bikes, and two, we wanted to come with a girl (wife now). We drove to Ooty and then rented bikes. Shrish was staying in a hotel about 20 minutes from our place as he had booked it long back. We got an excellent place to stay (Berry Hills Resort) close to the tea factory. As it was newly opened, everything was good! except for the approach road. New Year’s party in Nahar Hotel. Managed to check out Sinclair’s too on the way.

Oh, btw, how can I forget to mention what happened at Dodabetta Peak? My wife tells me only mad people will have ice cream when it is cold, and when I start having it, she gets tempted and has a taste. After that you know what happened! She fell in love with ice creams in cold weather (and finished half of my ice cream) 🙂

2014: Bangalore (Home)!

Guess the power of shooting stars lasted for a little over a decade only…. My 2002 New Year resolution ends today!

#Adventure