The notoriously party loving ‘country’ by itself, Delhi felt a gloom land on its pathway to 2013 with celebrations muttering to itself rather than the noisy binge and gluttony usually seen to mark the entry to a fresh year.
This time Delhi could not welcome. It had to abjure. Many hardcore party goers behooved; there was sense of principle. A feeling of guilt. An abundance of grief. The spirit was down and it was indeed contagious. For some reason, there was unity in grief across the 1.67 crore Delhites. And it did seep in to Bangalore. For the past couple of days, people, particularly youngsters, following messages spread by the social media were sharing moments of concinnity.
But on 31st night, they did seem to take a break. Not the whole bunch, but yes, many. Probably, they wanted some solace and the birth of 2013 did give them the opportunity to scream, dance, drink and to strengthen their belief in belief itself.
Police were parenting in huge numbers. Brigade Road, the purlieu during celebrations and the public club cum discotheque saw what it has always seen. But the sombre touch was obvious. The numbers were less.
MG Road minus its promenade seemed less populated. The decibel levels definitely much lesser than previous years. So was the scene at Commercial Street and Church Street. Freedom Park and Cubbon Park were a contrast. They hosted a crowd which had a different agenda. They had invested mental and emotional energy on one person.
The local bars in the city stood emotionless. Every bar was full to the hilt. It started in small numbers from 7 pm onwards and swelled by the time it was 10 pm. The ‘swalpa adjust maadi’ attitude of every Bangalorean was widely evidenced in the water holes, which is sprinkled in every nook and cranny. Seating or standing, almost every bar was one ocean of people and nobody complained of late service.
“Like every year, new year’s eve is when we get the maximum crowd. We kept the bar open till late, of course, this time, we did face some restriction with the vigil more strict by the police. But there was no dearth in crowd. We made our money,” said Gowda, a cashier at a bar in R T Nagar.
There was a sense of artificial sympathy to the circumstance surrounding the past few days in these bars, but overall there was no grief. “It is definitely a sad incident. The media coverage has made it even more profound. But there is not much that we can do,” said a group unanimously at a bar.
But bigger hotels, restaurants, clubs, and event managers were in grief. And the promise of making up for their deficit sales during the year seemed lost. But then they had their excuse ready for the bosses to hear.
Sutra at Lalith Asoka had a blast. The numbers were definitely less though and the mood required a little push to thump. “It never happened to me before where I had to force myself to party. For some reason, some unknown person, thousands of kilometers from here was touching my heart. It took me a while to get back to the feeling that life moves on. I might feel guilty tomorrow, but then I just let go,” said Jaspreet Singh on his twitter post, who had commented on the party at Sutra.
There were many others posting their feeling on the social networking sites. Their skepticism whether to party or not. There were others who wanted to be vocal. Mel Abrham, who had been to the Dusk2Dawn, a James Bond Theme Event at Ramnagara was a little practical. “I think I believe in respecting any move which has an expression of cumulative happiness. It has always been like that even when there has been grief in my family. We have tried to bring in the feel of happiness at the time of agony. This new year’s eve, I had my friends and we wanted to snatch a bit of life when we got the chance,” she said.
The Grandiose 2013 Party at a hotel in Kodihalli did attract its own chunk of crowd. Sameer Kohli who had flown down from Delhi said, “It is a good party. It seems like Delhi and I feel because of my assignment in the city, I got this opportunity. It would have been difficult for me to party in Delhi given the grief in the air. Life has to move on, so I thought why not party and leave the unsavoury past behind. The guilt will be there once I go back though.”
Vrinda Vasudevan who partied at the Novotel New Year Bash 2013 felt that it was as an excuse to come out of the gloom that surrounded her for the past few days. “I was actively participating in all the Freedom Park vigil. I have actively participated in every campaign to support the cause.
At some point of time, I felt that there was a certain amount of depression seeping into me too. My friends too shared the same feeling and we all decided to move away a bit. It is like beating your grief by having a blast, but we do really feel for her,” she said.