I was musing over this topic – Why is this day important – may be because it will stay in your memory. I still remember the night when we cut a cake and watched the movie “Bala”. What a movie. I still believe it as the reason for all the problems I got that year. I got a smile when I wrote this.
New Years used to be different when I was in Todhunter Nagar. It’s a different place where you would find things that doesn’t happen elsewhere in Chennai. If you are wondering what Todhunter is, it’s the name of a British collector. It’s for government officials and these guys live in houses built for workers of the British Raj. In those houses you would find an open tank used to store water. My friend’s mom said it was originally meant for the horses. I lived in the newer apartments. There were around 144 houses in my street alone. You could imagine the number of friends I must have got to play with. It was a wonderful time.
Festivals were special. During the Tamil month of Margazhi (around the month of December), all girls (almost) would come out daily to draw the kolam. There were 24 flats in my building and 48 in the opposite. At least one family per bay(that’s a division of building in our jargon) would be out painting the kolam. Guys don’t involve themselves I kolvam. We had to just stroll and compare which one was the best. This continues through Margazhi, through Christmas, till Pongal. Those were half-yearly holidays, and that gave us the reason why not to remain stay put. New Year was special with more participants for drawing the kolam. I wanna get back those days.
New year eve will also be marked by building an Iyyappan temple, out of banana stem (pseudostem) in front of our Pillaiyar temple. That looks spectacular and it will always be crowded with a festive air. All of our friends would hang out after the midnight prayer. Hanging out meant just roaming around on our streets: D. It’s not usual to see most of your friends on road at midnight, is it?
After my life at Todhunter Nagar, New Years have been hanging out with my friends at some public place. But this year there wasn’t any hanging out though : (.
Anyways, Happy New Year readers : )(heard this is going to patented. Refer Kavin’s blog)
I also have a question -why do many people wish happy New Year in the oldest day of the year? :D
