2005 & The Ladybug Picnic

Here I was, standing at my hostel's gates, with 11 of my classmates ready to hit Mumbai to spend the new year with the crowd. This is how it all began.

Was alone and watching a movie. News about the tsunami kept pouring in. Hemi comes in and asks "Whatch you doing for new year?". Well! load my camera, have a nice dinner and hit marine drive by 11:00pm. Walk for sometime, watch the fireworks, have some icecream and come back home. Vikas, who was around, asked me if they could tag along since they were not sure of what they were going to do. I wiggled my big toe a bit and then said, "OK". It was 9:00am.

The scene as it unwraps in the next 11 hours - Nikhil was Hemi's friend, so it was obvious that he would be coming along too. GB, Vikas's neighbour, was all alone. So he wanted to come too. Who's stopping him? Murali asks me at 6:00pm, "Where are you going?". To marine drive. "Well, aren't we supposed to go together? Hemi told me." I said, "Well then, get ready and move." I roam around the campus and come back to the hostel gates by 8:00pm. I find Mandar, Paddy, Ankit, Arpit, Adithya and Jagandeep standing there, sharing a few jokes and enjoying themselves.

As I pass by, they ask if everybody's ready. I said "What?". "Well, we heard that you guys are going to marine drive and so we are here to come along with you guys. Is that a problem?". No! Not at all.

So there we are. The new year turned out to be a fairy tale picnic, just like the picnic in which there were 12 lady bugs singing, dancing and making merry. And to think of it, 12 hours ago, people were finding it difficult to make up their mind as to what they wanted to do for new year. They were afraid that they might end up doing something that was not fun at all. Nobody wants to start their new year with a flopshow. Glad that I was able to help them through.

Last year was long and tiresome. Hope this year brings in the goodies. I mean lots and lots of goodies. I have got big plans baby. Happy new year folks! 2005, here I come.