Green NEW Year EVE2011

New Year Diary: 31^st December, 2011

I had a great New Year at Goregaon’s Filmcity park, actually, more of a forest. It was with the BNHS, at the BNHS conservatory inside Filmcity’s premises. Luckily, after reaching late to be able to stay awake till 12 am, I really enjoyed my evening with families. Fortunately, for me, 4 other single girls were also part of the event. The crowd was decent, cultured, middle class, and reserved. How I wanted to break from the usual drink, dance, and dine routine!

Although I was late for the nature trail of about 1 km, I made it in time for the bird quiz, the treasure hunt, the space observatory from Nehru Planetarium, and then finally dinner, and cake cutting.

In the treasure hunt, I was unable to take active part as I grew tired of coordinating with the other group members who didn’t exhibit too much intelligence. Also, there was too much walking around, and pacing, so after 15 mins of an introduction, I just started taking pics, and relaxed for the rest of the group members to finish. After working so hard, you want to relax and enjoy, not duel away a pleasant evening!

So, the treasure hunt was over, and the winners were declared, but people didn’t even care. Our compere was good, but was overdoing the instruction that lead to people just looking through her.

The best part of the evening was the space talk from a member of the Nehru Planetarium. As the lecture with slides rambled on, no one seemed interested in the talk; it was turning out to be a monologue. So, I decided to up the ante a bit, and started asking relevant questions, following which the other interested kids started exhibiting some interest and IQ. After asking a lot of interesting questions on the Solar System and planets, we got to actually look through the telescope, but since there was just one amidst 50 odd people, I left it for the others to finish their chance.

We were just in time for dinner with starters like Veg Wanton Soup with friend noodles. The other Veg starters were Paneer in a brown spicy sauce with capsicum and onion. I loved that hors d oeuvre. For dinner, there was paneer tikka, which is usually solid, but this time it was a semi liquid, saucy dish. The daal was brown, just the right heat and salt, and they also had rotis and dosas, but since I thought the dosas were not cooked right, I skipped them. There were pineapple and watermelon juices, followed by dessert of a black forest cake, and more dessert of ice cream. The cake cutting was followed by a green resolution writing ceremony, after which we were asked to either board the bus and leave for home, or spend the night at the conservatory. Although I was equipped to stay back, I didn’t want to walk all the way to the next bus stand for an auto in the morning, so I departed in the bus till Dindoshi. From there I hauled up a cab till town, and luckily made it in just an hour, the clock read 1:45 am. The streets were all lit up, and it appeared to be safe. Once I was near Crawford Market, the rowdies started showing up, especially near Mohammed Ali Road and the back side of Crawford.

Fortunately for me, they were not interested in my cab, so I made my way safely through to right under my building. This time there was no orgy of dogs feeding on raw meat too.

So, I had a different NY with the BNHS, but sadly, even this time, I couldn’t just make any friends, for whatever reason; I think the best being that people are too closeted in India, and the two twin sisters I spoke to were really not interested in a full time friendship after the event. But even then, I had nothing to lose, and made such a fun evening in just 1555 rupees, travel and food included.

This was my first visit to Filmcity. I had heard of and even been to Aarey Milk Colony, but Filmcity was my first. Thankfully, due to the sets built all over, the animals didn’t really come out in the open. The only problem that really took my peace was the inability to find an autorickshaw from Goregoan E station, and then after having found one, the driver’s insistence not to be able to drive till the venue due to the darkness and wildlife scare. So, finally, on the driver’s advice, I landed up in a jeep with the security officers there, thankfully only one, and reached the venue in one piece, of mind and body!

Not only did I have a fun evening outdoors in fresh air, with no blaring music, smoke, and stupid, raunchy numbers, but I also discovered Filmcity, and resolved to only write E books. There were so many other aspects to green energy resolutions like dry and wet garbage separation, planting of trees and plants, and also turning office spaces green with lesser tech and ewaste, writing on both sides of paper, recycling etc. I didn’t approve of my compere’s advice to just throw peals and skins of veggies and fruits into potted plants; this would be akin to turning your garden into a smelly garbage dump with more and more mosquitoes swarming in at night. Going green and dying of malaria is not my idea of wisdom, folks.

Also, my advent into Goregaon saw me marvel at all the architectural delights there. Goregaon is really turning into a migrant hub, with so many SOBO people also having shifted there. The buildings I was witness to were solid, good looking, and with great design and features. I could just as well have stepped out on the road to take in the life there, but here too, there were too many people crowding the roads.

So, a great evening, and the fact that I contributed to the 40 odd K BNHS made in one evening for their conservation work, really gave me a good night’s sleep with a great, clean conscience.