Pocket full of memories with Warm Wishes for a Happy New Year.

2013 has started with an abnormally fast pace. Is it the same for you?

  In my case it was such a fast pace race that I simply forgot to wish  you all “A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR”.

Neither could I ever get down to penning the top three resolutions I vaguely had in mind for 2013.

Since it’s not in etched in ink I can totally ignore it and pretend it never existed. Right?

I was just so caught up that I even forgot the EAT.COOK.WRITE.

And since I hardly ate anything I have started sporting a gorgeously thin waif like body of Keira Knightley
(got, ya!).

Don’t worry though; it’s not likely to happen!

I had been busy stuffing my face with the goodies. Busy making the New Year Eve Plans and the plans for the week after.

Sometimes making things simple and cozy also take a lot of preparation. How come I never noticed it all this while?

All my growing up years, I remember celebrating the New Year eve with our family friends. Sometimes they would come to our place and on others we’d all pile into the car and be driven to theirs. My mother would always prepare non fussy warming meals Like Ghughni and Payesh for all of us kids which we would eat hurriedly and bunch up with the rest of the kids to play with the toys at hand. Just before the stroke of midnight we all assembled together in the Hall for some singing and dancing. Where Dancing was done by the kids and the adults huddled around to clap and sing.I think the adults later ushered in the new year with Spiced Tea and hot Singaras, while we were sent to bed with milk and Cookies.

The older I got, the toys became so yesterday and the same old guests boring. I repented that why my parents were not the New- Years – Eve party kinds. Then the newspaper coverage preluding the Big day made me so left out.  Being a teenager in the 90s in a Bong home in India did not help the cause in any way. I had outgrown my toys but parents continued to treat me as a kid.  I always secretly wished we were the Hollywood movie like family. We were NOT.  The mystery of the party seemed so alluring. All we did was to have a hearty meal in front of the ‘room heater’, celebrate the countdown with Doordarshan, Luchi aar Kosha Mangsho and Dal ,and said happy New Year to each other and tucked away. Life did seem exciting the other side of the fence.

But as a single person negotiating life in a metropolis, New Year’s just looked like my dreams. In came, shiny heels and haute black dresses. Never mind even if I wore it for a house party inside my tiny little bachelors pad, the addition of Old Monk, Coke, Pasta, Meat Loaf and friends indeed made me feel all grown up and Sexy. Even in my 20s, going out on the New Year’s Eve meant walking up to the roof to watch the fireworks. I think my parents lessons were so ingrained that I could not do anything to break the mold. I was happy nevertheless.

Life changed with my Princesses homecoming.

Haute black dresses Stopped fitting me. Shiny heels were traded for loafers. Granola Apples replaced the Apertiffs. Unknowingly I started following my parents ‘boring’ schedule. Maybe they knew the right thing to do. After a lot of brainstorming we did go out this year, only to realize I’m much happier cuddling up with my darlings at the stroke of midnight. It has a magical quality, AND much more happening than any hip New Year’s gig in town. 

So goes the story of my many New Years. It may not be perfect, but I love it that they all together make such happy memories.   

I hope and pray that your days too are full of such happy memories, love, luck and lots of laughter.

Cheers!
Nilanjana