Khoob jamega rang, jab mil baithenge teen yaar . . .
Aap, main aur Bagpiper. Well, in our case, it was a bottle of Magic Moments ‘lemon flavour’. My last post started with a hint of the Benadryl jingle and this one has the tagline of Bagpipers soda outright. In case you are wondering what is up with all the ad jingles and the brand taglines, it’s not me as a marketing student, it’s the effect that some brands have on our lives.
So, as the title suggests, I was joined by two of my friends, Harsh and Kartik last night, as we looked to welcome the New Year. Pizzas for dinner set us up nicely for our little New Year celebration. Green Apple is the usually preferred flavour, but an absolutely maddening rush at the MRP store (Tasmac in TN, Wine shop in Kerala and in the northern states — Theka) meant that we had to settle for lemon. It was nothing compared to the nice fruity smell of the green apple. The lemon flavoured vodka shot left us with facial expressions similar to that of babies when they taste a lemon for the first time, just that ours was in no way cute. Anyway, some soulful Coke Studio Unplugged songs assuaged our liquor woes. Here, take a look. See how amazing these guys are.
Three shots down and we realized it was quarter to 12. While Harsh and Kartik geared up to wish people through their mobile phones, I was busy reading the half time match analysis of the Liverpool vs City game. A crucial game in the title race. No live streaming meant I had to closely focus on my Twitter feed. Desperate times, call for desperate measures. Sigh.
11:58 PM — Kartik gets up and occupies the balcony. 11:59 PM — Harsh goes and sits my room. 12:00 AM — sitting in the hall, least bothered about the New Year with my eyes glued to my laptop screen, my phone rang. Mom, dad and my grandma called to wish me. Five minutes later, my little sister calls me up to wish me as well. I think she had a much better New Year celebration with her friends dancing to the crazy songs of Babli DJ back at my home in Delhi. Ha Ha. And then there was a flooding of all Whatsapp groups with ‘Happy New Year 🎉 🎉’. Following this, I was back to football. Half past 12 — Harsh and Kartik were back for the next round. The teen yaars were back to finish off their shots when it occurred to me — “wow, wishing people who are hardly 5 feet away from you has become so mainstream that we are now wishing them on Whatsapp!?”. The three of us hadn’t wished each other! Can you believe it! Seriously ha ha.
Realizing how stupid we are and after needless drunk apologies, we raised our glasses to being less ignorant this year and gulped the drinks down. “Aaaahhhhh, boht bekaar hai yaar” (the drink is pathetic man) said Kartik as we laughed off the incident. Harsh started playing Mohammad Rafi classics, Kartik enjoyed the same while lying on the bean bag, and I was counting down the minutes in the match for the final whistle to blow. Some frantic defending by Liverpool and the Anfield faithful’s jeers against Manchester City players saw us win the match 1 goal to nil. Great way for my team to finish off the year. 🎉
In a night of oblivion and not getting what we wanted, I feel music and football brought us some cheer. I also bid farewell to 2016 and set my Whatsapp status as “ Hello 2017 🎉”. The song ‘Closing Time’ by Semisonic very nicely says — “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”.
On that note, here’s wishing you all a very happy New Year!
