Party to pressure

Although the hype surrounding the New Year is somewhat hard to comprehend, I guess it signifies a new beginning.

Although the hype surrounding the New Year is somewhat hard to comprehend, I guess it signifies a new beginning. And a chance to do everything you didn8217;t manage to do in the year that has just gone by. The whole world comes to a standstill this weekend. Top magazines club their year-end issues and offices are kept shut.

The impossible expectations and hope we all get from a fresh start add to the hype of New Year8217;s eve, where revelry is expected, and you8217;re something of a loser if you8217;re not clowning around wearing a conical hat. The pressure to party on New Year8217;s eve has somewhat eased lately. But the 8216;what are you doing on New Year8217;s eve?8217; question has become almost replaced by the other common one: 8216;where are you going for New Year8217;s?8217;

And so the pressure continues. Just a little differently. Over time, I8217;ve developed a fine collection of New Year stories from hell. I8217;ve either been cold and damp or stuck in traffic. In college, when the pressure to rock on New Year8217;s eve is at its peak, I remember being stuffed into a tiny car with about 10 other people, on the road to a party we never reached because we got lost in the fog. Somehow, we managed to find our way home by 3 am, hungry and thirsty. Another year, a friend8217;s boyfriend cruelly broke up with her on the 31st night, so that turned out to be another miserable evening as well.

The next year, we decided to have a civilised party with a bonfire and 20 guests, and that probably turned out to be the only New Year8217;s eve in my life that wasn8217;t a complete disaster. Although, perhaps, it was just a bit too mellow. The next year, we swore we8217;d organise the first day of the year better. Alas, we were back to our general bungling. Mercifully, I8217;ve escaped spending this ridiculous evening in Delhi for the last three years. This year, however, I8217;m bracing myself for another of those dreadful nights. A friend who is back for a New Year8217;s in India after 10 years is driving me crazy with her questions about what, precisely, we are going to do on New Year8217;s eve.

My New Year8217;s resolution is not to give in to peer pressure. But I can already see it fading away already!