Happy New Year!
Its still like a dream that we are already in tthe 5th year of the millenium, I remember when it was 2k people always spoke about Y2K problem and no one would want to call anyone at 12 in the night :).Now its 2005.Last year our first new year together we were in New Mexico Santa Fe.
“‘For a long time we thought if its goood to go and hang out and enjoy our new year when crores of people are greiving and mourning the loss of their relatives and friends because of the Tsunami.But then we thought that probably its good to go as this new year might come in as ray of hope and bring a lot more better things for us and other people to look fwd to.”
Then we decided to go to the NYC to see the famous Apple Drop. Hari/Visa and their friend Bhart/Karti also were joining us.Luckily it was a friday.We started around 12 from home and after leaving our car in the Newark Penn station we came in Path train to NYC.We reached around 1.30 and walked to the times square.It didnt look very crowded but full of Cops.I have never seen so many together in my entire life.Anyway as there was a lot o screening and no bags and beverages were allowed we didnt take anything much, and confortably found a place for ourselves right underneath the apple drop.We had another 10 hours to kill.We had taken our ipod books everything but is it possible to sit down in the middle of 100,000 people and peacefully listen to music, i think not!We tried every possible thing to kill it and somehow managed .May be because we were 6 of us together.We met Radha there, she had come to pick her friend up.Anyway Hari and Bharat and went and bought a Pizza.do you know how much it cost them???????????? No noone can guess it.It cost them $35 for 10 slices.Crazy isnt it?People slowly started gathering around that area, and as the crowd grows they started closing the Blocks.I remember me and sudharshan talking before we started for Times Square,He asked me Harini whats the strategy if we get lost?Then he siad ok no worries u have ur cel phone and i have mine so we an communicate etc etc…..Now was the time to plan a strategy,We 3 girls wanted to go,it took us long to search for a restroom in some small restaurant as there were no public restrooms located there,finally after searching aorund we reached a small junky pizza place and went it , we also bought 2 cappucinos anyway,when we came back that block was closed, and he wont let us in.But after pleading he agreed that ifhe would see our respective husbands he would let us in.Nowwas the time to use the strategy we planned well in advance for these kind of problems.I called sudhar,but waitwhat was vibrating in my bag? After few vibrations when i peeped into my bag i saw something similar to SKCHARY’s cellphone!Now what to do with the wonderful strategy we made????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? How to communicate?Luckily visa had a cell phoen she tried calling Hari,but Alas! he wont pick up.Now was karti’s turn ,luckily bharat picked up, by the time she was explaining things to him, the cop got angyr and told me lady! u got 2 more secs and if i dont see them i change my mind!Finally bharat walked out and saved us !Somehow we killed another few hours, but karti go a headache and decided to leave,Bharat accompanied her,they had also got some idlies from home,we ate that and killed another few hours, now it was 10 pm,we felt somewhat better and happy that we passed so much of time .We were getting tired, and as the crowd increased we were not allowed to sit as they wanted to accomodate more people near the ball!Visa sat for a while and then sudhar.Somehow the countdown began at 11.58pm.It was not far and we also made it through the end.The celebrations began,fireworks the cheering crowd people throwing confetti,and balloons.In and around timesqaure were a lot of hotels which were fully booked, and we could see the people peeping out of their windows.The ball came down and stopped at a point(that was ball drop:)).Fortunately the weather wasnt veyr cold, it was a little warmer than usual.We could all survive through it.Once it was over all 1 million people started walking out, we were neared to the exit so it took us only half hour , but we had to walk one extra block to reach the station.Legs were breaking into pieces,our back was stiff and paining as a result of standing for 10 hours.Was it all worth?Yes it was, jsut for the last 5 mins of celebrations, :).Once in a lifetime yaar!We might not come next year.But we can definitely say we have see it live :).
We reached home around 3 and slept woke up around 10 am.The day was usual after lunch slept again:) and then hari/visa and bharat/karti came home.They were here till 11 and then left.Sunday was usual with grocery shopping etc.I am enjoying my off on monday.The routine will start again tomorrow.The 5 day break was fun and refreshing!