Welcoming New Year around the country

[fineleg]

By Aakash Chopra: Dear all, Wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year. For the last couple of years we have had the privilege of being at home on New Year's Eve but it hasn't always been like this. On the contrary we have almost always been away playing for our state teams at this time of the year. If you've been following my blog you might remember that I'd written about the horrid time we had en route to Vijaywada. Incidentally we were in the same city for New Year's Eve as well. There was a small party organised in one of the posh hotels which was obviously not the hotel we were staying in. We paid our way to the party and found that it was a family affair with comedians, poets, singers taking the stage. There was some kind of a live band playing too but it was more of a sit-down function. It wasn't the ideal way to celebrate New Year's Eve but we made do with what we had. I also remember a night in Mumbai. We were playing a Ranji Trophy game and I was not out on 46 at the close of play on the December 31. Hoping to score big the next morning, the options were very limited for me. I decided to stay indoors in the city of dreams while a few of my team-mates (the one's who had been dismissed, the bowlers and the ones not playing) had a blast. Well, I had a job to do, I told myself. As luck would have it, I got to my half-century off the first ball of the new year and got out soon after. I couldn't stop thinking that I too should have gone out last night. Hindsight is a wonderful thing indeed. My team-mates were quick to rub salt into my wounds by asking me sheepishly about what I did the previous night. I probably also became one of the only batsmen who had to wait a year to complete his half-century. That was the last year a first-class match was scheduled on New Year's Eve as the captains voiced their displeasure during the captain's meeting (a meeting between the board officials and the captains of all state teams is held every year after the season) and to the board's credit they complied to it. Nowadays, we don't have any matches on Diwali and New Year's Eve. But my poor Christian fellows still end up staying away from home on Christmas as there's invariably a match scheduled for the 25th of December. I also vividly remember being away from home for age-group tournaments and celebrating New Year's Eve in various other cities. One such time we were in Pune for some Under-19 one-day matches and we celebrated New Year's Eve with some tea at a roadside vendor's who stayed open till midnight. We prayed to God looking at the moon for some reason and went to bed soon thereafter; after all we had a match to play the next day. Looking back at all of it now, it seems so strange that we couldn't wish our parents or friends till the evening of the January 1, after the game got over. Those were the pre-mobile phone days. Then there was the New Year's Eve at the Sydney harbour in 2003. The entire Indian team was on a cruise ship and I had the best time of my life. Now that we're home and with our families, we must make the most of it as we really don't know what the future has in store for us. Though, personally, I wouldn't mind staying away on New Year's Eve with the Indian team once again.