When I
say, 1st Jan is just another day and that New Year should be
welcomed in a saner way ! ~ many are likely to frown .. .. yet, I have been
witnessing disturbing trends over the past decade or so .. – tomorrow when I walk on beach road,
certainly I do not want to see another mangled bike .. .. accident by a tipsy
nervy youth !!
At the time of
posting this @ 11pm on 31.12.2018 - Hong Kong, Sydney, Auckland and even North
Korea's capital Pyongyang have all held extravagant celebrations to make sure
2019 arrived with a bang. Festive lights decorated Hong Kong's iconic
skyscrapers as they provided the backdrop for a fireworks, music and light show
over Victoria Harbor where some 300,000 people had gathered on New Year's Eve. New
Year's Eve is not widely celebrated in mainland China, where the lunar New Year
in February is a more important holiday, but countdown events were being held
in most major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Earlier today, thousands
filled a main square in Pyongyang, North Korea, where dictator Kim Jong-un
appears to have spared no expense to ring in the new year as footage shows
fireworks in the shape of digits being launched into the sky to count down to
midnight.
North Korea and
Japan joined Australia and New Zealand in welcoming 2019, where millions
gathered to watch spectacular firework displays in cities like Sydney and
Auckland. The party atmosphere is now
set to sweep across major cities in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas as
the world celebrates a new year.
Love
it or hate it, many people feel
compelled to count in the New Year at midnight, whether celebrating at a party
or freezing outside watching fireworks.
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve , is on December 31. In many
countries, celebrations generally go on past midnight into January 1 (New
Year's Day).
Fireworks displays
are being tweaked and partygoers are taking up position as Australia prepared
to bring in 2019 with a bang. At Melbourne and at Sydney tonnes of fireworks were launched from the top
of city buildings for New Year's Eve
festivities. Back home in Chennai ~ let
another year unleash a million reasons
to smile! In one posh hotel in the City,
the New Year extravaganza offers
beverages - Whisky - Chivas Regal 12 years and Ballantine's; Vodka – Absolut;
Rum – Bacardi; Red Wine - Jacob's Creek Cabernet Shiraz – all for an early bird
couple price of Rs.39999/- only – there are hundreds of restaurants in Chennai
city itself and all of them could be full !
Last year, as Britain celebrated the beginning of the year,
pictures taken revealed many woken with a very sore head next morning and
some may even had to sleep in a police cell or a hospital bed. From Swansea to
Manchester, Birmingham to London, and Liverpool to Newcastle, partygoers were
drunk and dishevelled as they spilled out of bars, clubs and parties and onto
the streets last night. And in some
instances they ended up on the wrong side of the law, with Scotland Yard
revealing that 100s of people were
arrested for drunken, violent or sexual crimes during the celebrations in
central London. Meanwhile Ambulance trusts said they received one phone call
every 15 seconds that night as they
dealt with the results of excessive drinking.
Chennai
is no different – the Buhari hotel would get spruced up for the late night bash –at midnight, group of youth would gather on
roads, drink, drive crazily, shout and
disturb, annoy, rattle, enrage and even cause harm to others………. What is this about and what would this
merriment provide to anybody ? Everybody
knows that drunken driving causes majority of accidents during New Year Eve and
most claims are viewed with suspicion by the Insurers when they are reported
closer to New Year. The City Police
keeps a big patrol on road. Nearly
15,000 police personnel are to be deployed on security duty for New year
celebrations in the city. A couple of
years back unsavoury incidents took place in Mumbai beach on New year Eve ~
sure most of us have forgotten.
As large number of people would throng the beach
front, traffic restrictions and changes would be imposed in the Marina and East
Coast Road, the favourites spots for the revelleries. Beach road, Marina beach,
Elliots beach, ECR, Mount road are some of the places where some incidents and
some accidents get reported every year.
Besides the road accidents, Chennaites should remember the grisly
incident at a famous hotel a couple of years ago.
A few
decades ago, New Year would usher in with hundreds of ‘Greeting Cards’
personally written wishes from relatives and friends that would make one
happy. That was the time when people
thronged Post Offices for Post cards, Inland letters and covers – are they
still in use ? – then e-mail took over ; now even sending e-mail is considered
old-fashioned in the era of Facebook, twitter and other medias. How many of us know the price of a Post card
or Inland leter…
As the city races
towards the finish line of 2018 on a musical high from Margazhi, sabhas are
busy putting together their own itineraries to welcome the New Year in a way
that will be memorable. For the last 18 years, Carnatica Brothers Shashikiran
and Ganesh have been organising a New Year’s eve concert that sees close to 60
artists participating, and hundreds of rasikas attending. The concert, which is
one of the city’s most prominent, as part of the music season, will take place
at the Vedanta Desika Hall in Mylapore this year. The event, which is free for
audiences, will begin at 9pm on December 31 and go on till 2.30am on January 1,
2019. Musicians such as Malladi Brothers, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Gayathri
Girish and Vasudha Ravi will be performing. When the clock strikes 12, they
will render popular prayer songs such as ‘EndaroMahanubhava’,
‘MaithreemBhajatha’ or ‘Shanthi Nilava Vendum’ for universal peace. Audiences
will be treated to freshly brewed masala chai and Pongal through the night and
can also interact with their favourite musicians, promises Shashikiran.
At what could
resemble a battle front on beach road and elsewhere, City police has made
elaborate arrangements for crowd control and traffic management to tide over
New Year celebrations safely. More than 15,000 police personnel will be on
duty, manning 368 checkpoints and 25 patrol teams. The department will use CCTV
cameras, drones and watch towers to monitor places that see large crowds.
Marina and Elliot’s beaches attract thousands of people on New Year’s eve.
Patrol teams will pay special attention to women and minors, a police source
said. Eve-teasers will be punished severely, an officer added. On Marina and
Elliot’s beaches, the police have set up temporary shelters to monitor
celebrations.
All vehicles
proceeding to East Coast Road will be checked for traffic violations. There are
several resorts at Kottivakkam, Palavakkam and Neelankarai on ECR where gala
parties are hosted on New Year’s eve. Barricades have been placed at many spots
on the stretch to deter speeding. Hangout spots such as malls, recreational centres,
shopping hubs such as T Nagar and Sowcarpet, and places of worship will have
elaborate security arrangements. Checkposts have been set up to screen vehicles
entering from other states.
Every year many fatal accidents get reported in the city saysd Chennai city
police. Last year City police seemingly had a solution to curb overspeeding and drunk
driving on city roads on during New Year eve - a menace that endangers lives of
riders and public every year. The top brass of the city police has informed
that details of traffic violators on New Year's eve will be kept in the
commissioner's office and if the violator applies for passport, police "No
objection Certificate" (NOC) will be denied.Public are supposed to use
service lanes under the flyovers,” the officer added.
So,
Welcome the English New Year 2019 –
enjoy and make merry – be cautious on thy self and care for others also. Every New year the brash celebrations, spells trouble for the Police and law-abiding
citizens. In the melee, Police are lenient and generally do not book people for over-speeding or drunken driving ––
Are not human lives and limbs precious..
are there not better ways of celebrating
the New Year. Is there real need for
continuing the legacy of the colonial rule ?
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
31st Dec
2018 @ 11 pm.
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