Ring out the old…ring in the new, that precisely what this time of the year is for. Like some one I dearly know would say, this is one day / eve which is county, religion and age agnostic. One day when everyone celebrates ringing out the old with passion never seen before the last day of the year, and ringing in the new with an equal if not more passion.
Me and a good friend of mine chose Green Park as our destination this new year’s eve, to celebrate the arrival of the new year. We were hoping for a good time – the events list looked good – Pirates Theme, Dances, Drama, Music and Stand-up comedy. We chuckled – stand-up comedy reminding us of Russel Peters and the dances remind us of the extravaganza at Cignival earlier last year. We get there a little after 8 at night.
Excited as we get in, we even cut the line and head to the start, to save that extra 7-8 minutes – usually we stick to the queue. We walk in, the backdrop is a huge pirates ship – all the waiters dressed like pirates, we make our way to about the 4-5th row and make ourselves comfortable – while thinking, ah man! We are a few minutes late – hope we did not miss too much.
This reminds me – it was about ’95 or so. We had about 15-20 friends, 10 relatives around where we lived. Everyone was trying to check on the numerous destinations in the city – back then it was typically at one of the popular resorts in Shamirpet , Krishna Oberai or Taj Residency. My cousins and me said – we will organize an event – on our terrace – dining can be a buffet – not very popular either at the time. Even though the oldest organizing team member was only 21, we won the confidence of all the parents and the 30-odd families made our party their destination on that New Year’s Eve. We were excited, dad helped us with the catering and the decorative items, sponsored for the crackers – we were over budget – it was a trend – no one had done that in our colony until then – the gold phasers probably did – pun intended for those who watched Kammula’s LIB.
Anyways, the party of ’95 was very well orchestrated and it was a big hit – we had auditions a week prior, 2-3 rehearsals and 1 dress rehearsal before the big night. The MC had her jokes and tidbits written and practiced – believe it or not, being the Thambola event owner, I had a funny thing to say each of the 90 numbers, a smart thing to say for every winner – Jaldi 5 / Line or full house – even though I was one of the members of the organizing committee I was forced to rehearse it. The event was timed from start to finish and we even identified gaps that needed to be filled. Years later, I / We take pride when that event is recollected at family gatherings / weddings for being a great one – organized wholly by the kids of the house(s).
Back to last night’s event – We walked in, took our spots in one of the front rows. The MC was screaming into the mic – can mean one of the two things – she is unsure of herself / she is trying too hard. She sounded artificial, forced and at times even cheesy. Me and my partners exchange confused looks – not paying too much attention to the MC – The MC is after all only a part of it – all is well. The first event of the night – kids on stage please – worked fine. Second event – all the men in the house on stage – walk the stage with a magazine on their head – cheesy but hey that okay, they are trying to get everyone involved. Next call for couples onto the stage – ah nice…keeping the people in the groove. While we wait to see what them couples on the stage are upto – we go grab some appetizers – come back to see the MC announce “paper dance” – The last I heard it was banned even from intermediate (10+2) fresher’s parties. Ridiculous I say … my partners nod in agreement. The look of helplessness on our faces speaks volumes of what’s going through our minds. That’s when the thought of “can we leave” crossed our minds. We say – its okay, the best is to come.
Next act, stand-up comedy – by Babu Rao – supposedly world famous in all of ameerpet. He starts with a silly mimicry that reminds me of a cassette we had in our ambassador car in early 90’s (or even late 80’s). We say – best to come – all is well. Next act – singing – solo announces the MC – 2 singers of “Padutha Theeyaga Fame” show up – when 2 people are in a singing act, its not solo – at least the last I checked it wasn’t. Anyways – they start and we instantly know they were probably knocked out in the first round. All is well.
We decide to get dinner and hope fortunes change – Nope – Dinner sucks – they don’t even serve cold water – we are back in our seats. Desserts are good according to the wifeys. They like it. Good enough for us. We decide to dump everything and just stay put in our seats.
The MC announces – everyone stand at your seats please I have a surprise for you – the “Padutha Theeyaga Famers” show up – She says they sing you dance – and no cheating – I will be watching everyone and judging you all. I am like, “Really? Is this happening?? She sounds like a kindergarten class teacher” What am I doing here! By this point, I was left thinking – we did much better at organizing a party when I was 14 … Green Park – Please do not organize any more parties.
Reality dawns us – decision time – do we want to be here when the New Year arrives? The decision was simple – let us leave all the bad here and be with ourselves when ’13 arrives – we leave the party in a hurry, much faster than we arrived.
We drive out towards Necklace road, drive until about 11:55 and then make a stop at a random place. The place is buzzing with all the people on the streets – everyone wishing – well screaming New Year wishes. It did not matter that we did not know anyone on the streets – we were wished regardless if we knew some one or not. Then a strange thing happened, some random gang showed up and set up a cake on the hood of our car – lit up the candles and as the clock struck 00:00 they blew the candles, cut the cake and offered it to us – we did not know who they were, they were just out there similar to us – we were a little moved – enjoyed the cake and started driving.
A few hundred feet away, there was a little crowd gathered at a junction. We stopped to see what was up, and there was the City Police Commissioner, cutting cake and posing for the media – a good gesture.
We leave the place, and arrive at Ohris for Ice Cream…enjoy the Titanic and head home.
A great ending to a night that started as a bore … We discovered ourselves? We Enjoyed ourselves? We were with ourselves when ’13 arrived – sure were. It was a great night. Happy New Year indeed!!!
That make it 2/2, for the group of 4 we were tonight, ending up at a place not in the plan, not even thought about until we arrived there … but thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
Singaraju 