Happy New Year !

I thought we would spend last evening quietly at home with a glass of Sula blanc and the TV shows but we wound up on the 6 th floor terrace of a friend's house . The barbecued chicken was warm off the skewer , there was wine, South City mall painted the sky with colours from the rooftop and at night it seemed as if the whole city had let off fireworks - for all the world like showers of precious stones in a crystalline shimmer of cascading colour . I think we all heaved a sigh of relief that the year was behind us. It is a little special because of this little mite , BRG's great grand daughter , who was born last month .


We were not the only ones celebrating . The household help also vamoosed , with the cook shunting off in the afternoon to celebrate her sister's birthday and see the new year in ( she's very posh that way ). The part timer Maharani , whose connubial bliss has us fuming at times , had an appointment with her husband to go the zoo and we are all hoping they had a good time and did not lose their way .


This year I have no New Year resolutions and I am not surprised to see that Usha of Ageless Bonding shares my reluctance towards making New Year resolutions . At my age you suddenly realise that the list of nonsense one makes faithfully every year and never abides by is of no use at all because somewhere in the welter of everyday living they get lost while you attend to things which assume more importance.

Most new year messages this year have the "safe" element packed into them - like a crossed finger syndrome where you hope against hope that the extremists pack up their genocide agenda. But of course that is a futile hope as the Assam blasts today will prove.

However , I am hoping that together with all the wishes for ,love,safe etc , someone could actually wish away all reality shows on TV including those where prepubescent children participate , music reality shows , which now, make me want to barf ,cookery shows where the anchor does things that you and I can never hope to achieve - of course I would not wish to cook like Nigella Lawson( she's so over the top with the loads of butter and cream she uses and the lusty way she lunges at food , with a sidelong arch ,coy glance at the camera ) but I wouldn't mind doing a Kylie Kwong ( she looks like my friend Snigdha Patnaik from school and overall, appears very restrained ) ;programmes like Big Boss and Splitsvilla which you run down but secretly watch . But then again I am at that age where I am not so secretly pining for the good old days of Doordarshan- back then of course ,I'd wish there were more channels .

Oh and being a Telegraph reader , I am wishing they would do less of the Ritus , both Parna and Porno and concentrate on other Bong celebrities .The Porno has recently been very much in the news , not so much for his films but because he bashed Mir , a talk show celebrity of sorts and a popular RJ at one time - more here . I happened to watch the show and was appalled and fascinated that an "intellectual"( in Kolkata the aantel or the Buddhijibi which is a thinking Bong - normally they sit around a table on Star Ananda and get into deep meaningful discussions on all issues under the sun , outnumber the fishheads in the Sealdah wholesale fish market. More on the "antel" here ) could spew such venom .

However , this year I hope to become a baking goddess and am working towards it steadily and slowly - I also hope to move away from the book club towards the bake club and aim towards using my persuasive powers in this direction. I am also thinking that it will not be much of a loss because the book club is now practically defunct and peoples' attentions are wandering .However, this will not detract me from reading at all .

2008 has passed by very fast ,almost in a blur of days and events compressed like a closed concertina , threatening to spew loud , discordant music when opened . But all said and done , like my sister , I prefer to view Jan 1 as the day after Dec 31st, no more, no less.

So let us raise a toast for a better life in the next one year and good health and happiness for all our loved ones .