The Hindu : New Delhi News : Capital ushers in the New Year with fun ‘n’ frolic

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Tuesday, Jan 01, 2008
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New Delhi

Capital ushers in the New Year with fun ‘n’ frolic

Prashant Pandey

Connaught Place was declared out-of-bounds for traffic

NEW DELHI: Balancing fancy caps on their heads, singing off-tune numbers from popular cinema and indulging in untrammelled buffoonery, revellers ushered the New Year into the Capital here on Monday night in high spirits.

While they needed layers of clothing and energetic dancing to beat the cold in the air and keep them pumped up enough to last through the night of celebration, many were also not even averse to the idea of sinking their teeth into ice-creams in the cold night.

Connaught Place, the hub of New Year’s Eve celebrations, was declared out-of-bounds for traffic and the traffic police along with their colleagues from the district police were out in strength to prevent the revelry taking an ugly turn.

Shrieks in unison

As the clock struck midnight, the shriek in unison of “Happy New Year!” drowned all the music in the gaudily illuminated Connaught Place and Central Park. At India Gate, the scene was no different with revellers making the most of the energetic spirit.

The homebodies

For the homebodies, as always, the epicentre of celebrations was the idiot box with its ever-growing number of channels each of which promised a year-ender to cater to any and every taste.

Munching on delightfully addictive “desi” jaggery snacks, with heat convectors on full blast and the mindless banter of television shows for company, the “home” version of the “New Year” concluded with the inevitable countdown to midnight. The senior citizens then excused themselves to bed while the young brigade got busy sending New Year messages or making or taking calls on their mobile phones. These were, of course, from the tribe that chose not to play safe and send the messages or make the calls well before midnight, when the mobile phone networks had not begun crashing.

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