New Year Eve - Dec 31st of 2008

As i promised(lol, sounds as though i was so much looking towards this :-p), i had to deliver my scribblings about the start of year 2009. and... here i am..

Dec 31, 2008
It was on Dec 30, the idea of a new year bash sprouted upon my mind for the new year. I thought, why not another Pondy? Yeah, i know.. 'the ol' gang' was missing now.(the gang involved Ajay, Sandeep, Shine, Fazal, Hari, Tony). Still, that eve of 2006 has to be recreated. The task sounded simple. But, pulling out the like-minded was pretty hard ;-).

Negotiations and discussions popped out that day at the office... It wasn't so easy. Guys started pulling out coz they were 'not ready' or rather, they had homely ways of celebrating it.
When it was finalized, it was a gang of 4. Me, Vinu, Sam and Vinoy.

The trip was termed 'Exclusive' by Vinu :), I knew that he enjoyed it to the most. The bike rides will be always fun when you have loads of roads to cover in the scenic ECR. The best part of the trip i liked was the ride. It wasn't that daring as of 2006 dec 31st. We just paced at 80-90km/hr speed to hit the town and celebrate the new year at Pondy beach on time.
The 1st of Jan was just a site seeing day. We went to the boat house in Pondy that morning. The lagoon and the island nearby was a nice experience for us. Then followed some shopping in the Pondy streets. I knew the streets... I was there before... We had a plan to see the Alambarai fort on our way back. But, it was already getting dark.. there wasn't much sight seeing to do at that place at dark. So, we dropped it. There was a stop at the marakkanam salt field. The expanse of the field generating tonnes of salt was amazing when the dawn was falling upon us. A visitor to this field once captioned his album photo - 'even horizon can be a little salty'. (Yeah, true.)
The trip ended in chennai with the dinner at 'Tamburan' hotel in chennai.

It was, i'll say, a trip that we had made possible out of the impossible. I know that, it will be always remembered by the new gang.