The New Year

"So What are you doing this new year?" A mechanical sounding voice asks me from the other end of the phone ... I hem and haw , smile and ask back the question , I get answers that vary depending on whom Im speaking to ...

If it is Brij .. "Daru yaar aur kya?"
If it is Sam .. " Doston ke saath yaar"
If it is Raj ... [a few days ago] " Goa Mannnn !!!" [ysday] "Kya yaar , Im working"

If it is Rohini ... "With my husband " and a smile ..
If its Prakash " Partyin maaannnn .. where else , until eleven in the disc and then at home man " and a long drawl to go with each word.
If it is Jignesh " Holidayin man ! Travelling babes , wanna join" in a very very Gujju accent !!!

The same answers every year ... and the same Q every year .. "What are you doing babe/doll/abe duffer/gurlllll etc etc ...

What did I do to make the new year welcome and the past year as morose as it can feel on the 31st?

Nothing :|

Yeah Nothing. It is a weekend, every weekend is the laundry day, the room clean up day, the homeowrk day and sleep day. Exactly how the 31st Of Dec and 1st of Jan are going for me.No going out, No late night partyin, No "bat outta hell" kinda makeups , No "Drink till you drop" Tequilla Shots, No " As hard as rabbits" stuff to make me sail through the transition.
The earliest memory of a new year to me is when I woke up one day in our small rented house in Gujrath and my mom wished "Happy New Year" to me, and explained it was the First! THE FIRST !
I then wondered on Feb 1st , that though it was a first too , but why dint mom wish me ! ( As you all know now, I was a duh kid then ! )
In college , we would go to Sweet Magic (the small town's equivalent of Mc Donald's) or to Hot Breads ( a wannabe Pizza Hut) and have a burger or a pizza and down it with some pepsi, chill out with some pathetic Pjs all of which related to either storks or Sardars (sad losers we were) while our counterparts in metropolitan cities joked abou blondes over a beer in the poshest bar. We spoke about the terms coming up mid Jan , while they probably spoke of the raising hemlines of gals every year...

Now that the innocence is long gone, I dont feel like partying anymore, a quiet weekend at home is worth more than an amaetuer dancer stepping over your toes in a crowded disc ! :-(

Now before you start yelling sour grapes ... cos I havent done anything this year, yes, let me admit, a part of it is attributed to sour grapes phenomenon , another part to my lazieness, but then
Im happy Ive done what I feel most contented doing in ushering the new year , eating, sleeping, surfing the net, pampering my self with a nice oil massage and a piping hot bath, sleeping through out the day having sold all my horses (err .. woh kahte hain naa ghode beench ke so jaana lols), playing badminton with my bro and losing , going out in the evening to eat the air and downloading songs ! :P

Better than going to a party and trying to dance without getting shoved and poked in by elbows , stepped on by high heeled shoes, going crazy deciding which is veg and which of the food is non veg, trying to talk about the current nuclear policy of India and the commendation it has recieved which the other party goers pause from their conversation and look at the alien amongst them , and turn back to talking about the hottest chicks they've seen, the most hep parties they have attended, had attended, will attend and avoid attending ... better than going into the ladies room to finish pressing business and get scared and start shrieking when one of the teenaged girls asks for rouge ..... and me assuming that a rogue has gotten into the loo ... later on grin sheepishily and become-from-shy-water-water lols !

Sour grapes hi sahi
hum in partyon se door hi sahi

Aap Sab ko Naye saal ki haardik shubh kaamnayien