Got a call from my old buddies to be with them to welcome the New Year.
Got out of the office in the evening & drove all the way wading through the dense traffic of Bangalore to reach the township - just before people almost finished cooking dinner (not my buddies, their better halves).
My buddies have moved to new accommodations (in Phase II, spacious E-type accommodation). They had assembled in Bala(Krishna)'s house.
There was already celebration mood there. Kids were preparing themselves for various games & blowing up balloons too. Guru(prasad) was the ring master trying to bring some order.(My seniors Umesha & Pranesh were assisting him.) 
Kids are no longer the lightweight ones, whom we used to grab & easily toss them over shoulder. They have grown up quite a bit & reaching/crossing our shoulder heights too. But the energy level and enthusiasm is still quite high.
We played several rounds of games; there were dumb charades, mono-acting, blind-folded drawings, etc. Needless to say- elders fared poorly in those games.
Ladies had over-estimated our digestive capability & we couldn't even finish a quarter of the food they had prepared, though items were delicious.
Bala kept people amused with his creative jokes.
(Rakesh) Barua too participated through remote conferencing from Chandipur/Balasore(voice only:).
There were long stints of thundering dances to the tunes emanating from few FM channels (well it was good stress test for the building too).
I couldn't see a pint of sleep in the eyes of any of the kids (Keerthana Guruprasad, Ashaya balakrishna, Bilva Pranesh, Saurabha Umesh, Kaustubha Umesh) even at 2AM!
It was quite refreshing; a memorable New Year celebrations for me. Hope the New Year(2008) will bring joy to one and all.
It was also an occasion for me to be part of birthday celebration of a millennium baby - Saurabha. A rare occasion indeed.
