Strangely, till a few hours ago I had never spent a waking New Year’s midnight in the physical presence of another human being. It’s in no way by choice. In fact, I realized it just today.
Mostly I’m a friendless person; a loner in other words. Partying and dancing with a group of human beings is hardly my idea of fun. I’d rather stay home and watch them doing those stuff on television shows, you know, the live ones that come up specifically for the occasion. So there I was all set to do that at 11:30 PM yesterday, when I happened to look out of the window and changed my mind. But first, a background of events that led to the aforementioned decision.
I had been out on a 20-day tour covering the Andaman Islands and South India. After what seemed like an eternity, we traveled to Mumbai on the 30th, the city which is soon to be my new home. Having spent an awesome day at an aunt’s place, Mom and I took our final flight of the year back to Kolkata. It was well past 7 PM when the bright lights of the City of Joy appeared out of darkness underneath us. As we hailed a cab from the airport, it quickly became apparent that we’re gonna have big problems with the 31st night’s traffic. We managed to stuff ourselves with a hasty dinner at the New Town’s City Center on the way, and stumbled through hours of traffic jams before reaching the familiar gates of Mangalam Park as the clock struck 10PM. I was tired and felt a strong inclination of going to sleep immediately. But then How I Met Your Mother kept me awake till 11:30 PM, after which anyone would think “Oh what the hell, I’ll stay up the last half-an-hour as well”. That brings us back where I left off.
I glanced out of the window to see whether the fireworks had started yet. They had not. Instead, I spotted my friends on the lawn beside our building. This was a chance for a last hangout session with them (I will leave for my hostel today, and my parents will move to Mumbai before my next visit). I grabbed my jacket and headed out.
They were quite surprised to see me and broke into a loud mocking cheer. We chatted for a while, doing a little catching u, until it was finally time to head to the roof to celebrate the coming of 2012, which we did with a loud countdown and a few crackers while the older guys of the group smoked away in memories of another year gone by. Overall it was a nice experience.
As I returned home and sighed at the thought that I might never see some of these people again in my life, I realized that it’s kinda abnormal to be completely devoid of attachments.
There are so few things in life that I care about; my love life is a mess, and my career is literally bound in a path in which I have no interest. And yet, I am quite happy and that is the main cause of my current distress. And this distress is the cause of such an worthless venting in the middle of the night. Well… partly that, and partly because I felt that this blog desperately needed a new post.
It’s precisely 00:54 AM on the 1st of January 2012 now, friends, and I wish you a happy new year.