Last night my sister Sherine held a New Year’s party and family get together at her apartment and really did a splendid job in arranging it. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to attend it but at the very last moment my work shift was assigned as 10 in the morning till 7 in the evening. So by 7:30 pm I was at her place. The others were my dad, mom, Sherine, her three kids (Abishek, Aditya & baby Geethu), bro-in-law Deepak, his dad, my cousins – Raju with his wife Mallu & their baby Gayathri, Jayakrishnan, Kannanchettan his wife Sreedevi & their son Govind, Arun, Suraj, Priya, her husband Shaju, Shalini & Subin. I hadn’t seen Subin in ages and Arun I was meeting for just the second time in 5 years.

For drinks we had beer, Bacardi White Rum & Johnny Walker Whiskey. Soon we were munching on fried beef, a fried fish  chips , lots of Lays (hmmm Tomato Sauce flavoured  is so delicious), salad, and lovely chocolate cake. There was water, club soda and what we thought was orange juice but turned out be mango juice upon close inspection of the carton to mix our drinks! That was hilarious – mango juice does not go well with bacardi! I found a big bottle of Sprite and mixed that with my white rum. The kids were playing and screaming and laughing. The ladies were yakking ten to the dozen and us guys were boozing and cracking bad jokes. As usual Arun was the butt of most of them. It would be so appropriate that he would make himself seem silly and drunk on a few beers. This was also the first time that I would have alcohol with Raju & JK and Deepak’s dad.

There was some music played in the background but don’t ask me to name any songs – I was too busy having a good time! Also, Star Wars : Episode III was switched on from time to time. A couple of my non-drinking cousins were also engrossed by Alien vs Predator and as to how the little black actress became buddies with the Predator guy! Some had to leave before midnite cause their car would turn into a pumpkin! No, Raju had to report for work from his home system so he left with his wife and kid and dropped Shalini home on his way. JK took Priya and Shaju home as well. The rest of us continued drinking till the last moment. We then had our dinner, which was fried rice, chicken and stuff that I did not even touch. I was pretty full by then but did enjoy the ice cream of two flavours.  Surprisingly there were very few shouts of “Happy New Year” contrary to what is supposed to be tradition.

We left soon after and parted ways. This was a very special and enjoyable occasion, especially since they come so few and far between these years. Fun parties like this used to happen very so quite so often when we were younger and you get to appreciate them. I took a few pictures which you can seen in my Flickr site .

Happy New Year to you and yours, everyone. May 2007 be a whole lot better than 2006!

Song for the day – “Shoebox” – BARENAKED LADIES