The new year means different things for different people. For some, it’s a new chart paper spread across a table- empty and waiting for to be filled with fresh colours. For others, it’s a new wall of the same room to doodle on. Some couldn’t want less to do with these metaphors and don’t feel like a New Year changes anything but the calendar. However, whether or not New Year means something new, it certainly means celebration- lights across buildings, wishes through midnight calls, sometimes family, sometimes parties. Here’s a look at some things Ashokans did for this new year.
Source: http://www.eventism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/new-years-eve.jpg
Mansi Ranka started her celebration at a party- smiling and dancing- but left it to begin her real fun of the New Year’s Eve- time with her friends. “I met my girls and we spent the whole night talking around a bonfire, wrapped in blankets, sipping on the terrible hot chocolate we made, at the fairy lights-lit terrace of the same penthouse that we had all our sleepovers in.” Warm and lovely, this is one great way to spend New Year’s Eve.
Source: http://www.amadeusnablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/fam-reunions.jpg
Piyush Mishra’s New Year felt to him like another regular day. He spent the eve with his family and his close friends. After a wonderful time at a tiger reserve and a crocodile sanctuary, he returned home and to the first undisturbed sleep he’d had in a long time. The next day held for him a long drive, a picnic and a night-out with his friends, along with some time with his mother- filling his entire New Year’s eve and the New Year with amazing moments.
Aditi Mishra spent New Year’s eve with family too, although a little differently. “I didn’t go out or celebrate anything. My mom made some of my favourite dishes and I had a hearty meal and a pleasant conversation with my parents after long”. Despite the disturbance of loud karaoke by an uncle in the neighborhood, the eve ended up peaceful, and at midnight, she was “cozy in her blanket, reading Rumi and the uncle was still singing Gulabi Aankhein, and somehow I still felt nice.” She comments that this is perhaps the result of what a semester away in college does to you, making the idea of home truly lovely.
Rathi Kashi’s previous new years were generally spent at a community party characterised by “fairly ordinary” food and excessive boredom. This year, however, she and some other families in her locality boycotted it for a potluck in one of her neighbours’ houses. “We also played a bunch of games- charades, guess the celebrity and the like. It was a lot of fun!” They cut a plum cake at 12, and started the new year with a new way of celebrating it.
Source: http://www.chukkimane.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/happy-kids-photography.jpg
Amlan Bibhudutt’s new year was spent “distributing cake, pastry and muffins to the police and the homeless” in his hometown, Bhubaneshwar. Elaborating on it, he says that it felt like a duty to him and hopes to inspire others to take on this task and begin a chain of such deeds. However, the picture isn’t as rosy as one might think. This task also involved the watching the pain of those who begged him when he was out of things to give- sights that haunted him enough that he couldn’t sleep for two days. He considers this worth doing despite its difficult nature, and begins his new year with the promise to make honest efforts to help people, no matter how little the help might be.
These are the stories of five different new years. You could take some of these ideas yourself for celebrations in the future- not only of New Years but also of all the small and big milestones in your life. Have a great year ahead!
Edited by – Nayanika Guha
All images are curated by Sanjna Mishra