Get Set To Party...

It’s in to be out. On December 31, 1999, and watch the dawn break over AD 2000 under exotic skies rather than over a hungover breakfast at the Oberoi coffee shop. So what if purists say the party actually begins on the eve of 2001. The world has decided that the celebrations start from New Year’s Eve ’99 all because of the magic number 2. And so be it. The pressure is on to do something different—if you can’t chase the sun from Fiji to Finland, why not take a dip in the sea as the millennium’s first rays hit Katchal, a tiny island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago?

"Well, that’s what I’m doing," says Prof Poonam Sehgal of Delhi. Early birds Poonam and Brig Sehgal and their two daughters started planning for a year-end bash in Port Blair from January this year. Though the Sehgals are unsure of what to expect there, they’re willing to have a bit of an adventure. That’s what you’re supposed to do any way aren’t you? The buzzphrase is, ‘Be different this year’.

And people are getting really ‘different’ with a vengeance. A young group known as the Batch of ’98, all graduates from iim Lucknow—five men and two women—are on to a whacky project as the millennium draws to a close: writing a piece of fiction by turns. "I know it sounds crazy, but we are almost halfway through. The last week (of the year) is review time and we shall do that in Goa," says P. Ramaswamy, now a business analyst with Bos Calleo, a Swedish software company in Bangalore. The others are all working in different companies in Mumbai and south India. "We’ve chosen Goa to finish our project and celebrate the new millennium for two reasons—one chap has a pad there and another works for a distillery which should take care of the booze!" laughs Ramaswamy.

If a starry millennium sky, the sound of crashing waves, an unfinished novel and carafes of wine seem a bit like Omar Khayyam, the Bangalore-based Antonie Bakhache, ceo of the Pizza Corner chain of restaurants, plans to retrace the steps of ancient explorers through the interiors of Malaysia. "About a dozen friends and I are going to drive a van from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore beginning December 15," he says. The group will take the road along the coast to reach Singapore, drive back through the mountains and forested areas to return to Bangkok, the route taking them through 6,000-7,000 km of unknown territory, stopping on the way at interesting resorts and villages.

There’s a catch here, though. Which is why those who have the blues at not having planned anything yet need to watch out for that final nervous breakdown. All resorts, hotels and exotic hotspots claim that by mid-October everything will be sold out. In fact, those planning to go abroad better wake up. For, everything is sold out. The firangis woke up to the millennium mania long before we did. According to those in the business, we Indians are just beginning to stir to the idea. "It’s not our fault," points out one young lady rather petulantly. "What can we do if we have so many festivals in between—Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Durga Puja, Diwali, Christmas... How much can we plan ahead?"

"We did," says twenty-something Dinesh Anand who works at the Delhi office of aerospace company Aerospatiale Matra. "We planned it at the last New Year’s Eve party." Anand is among a group of 13, all old friends, who decided to hit Thailand for the Big Bash. By February, they’d made their bookings and are all set to leave on December 24. "We wanted a beach holiday so we are going to be in Phuket on the 31st," says Anand. "We weren’t aware of anything exciting happening in India," says mnc executive Yash Sharma, another member of the group, "and this year’s celebrations had to be different, something special, and Bangkok was not too expensive." The young group spends every New Year’s together and they’ll still be together this year but among revellers from all parts of the world. "That’s the idea," grins Sharma.

If that’s how it is with the twenty-somethings, don’t be under the impression that the forty- and fifty-somethings are stay-at-home fuddyduddies. The MD of New Holland Tractors, T.L. Palani Kumar, 50, and his wife Asha, a speech therapist, have no intentions of spending the millennium-eve sipping cocktails at some stuffy Delhi party. Their plans were also final by the first half of the year. Goa is their venue for an old friends’ meet.

"There’s a long story behind this year’s celebrations," says Palani with a smile. "We were a group of 15-20 families—old friends—who used to meet very often at one time. Now we’re scattered all over the world." So at the beginning of the year, an enterprising member of the old circle of friends took matters in his hands, contacted the rest of the families and firmed up plans. Friends are flying into Goa from Bangalore, Delhi, Colombo, Mumbai, the US and UK.

But why Goa? Why not do something entirely different like getting together in Times Square in New York or at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, England? Wouldn’t that be more exciting, really different? "See," explains Palani, "the winter break in India for schools is just about 10 days. We can’t afford to be away for too long. We’d spend more time travelling and recovering from jetlag than having actual fun. So we wanted to go someplace lively as we consider ourselves a lively group! Moreover, our friends abroad wanted to spend the millennium eve in India."

London residents Soma and Anish Gupta and their two daughters, who’re to join the Goa gang, confirm what Palani had to say. They might joke that they’d "rather be on Indian soil among old friends than in a foreign land on that day—what if the world comes to an end?" But the sentiment is for real. And Gupta, group planning director, Reckitt and Colman, UK, worked overtime and sacrificed his annual home leave in August to be in India for 10 days in December just to be with friends who are also family.

Seems like whoever created the hype about the millennium a year in advance knew where his money lay. Sentiment. Says Mitrabarun Sarkar, 38, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Central Florida: "A large number of desis here seem to be motivated to go home to welcome the Big M. So much so that by March or so, year-end flights to India got sold out. The price rocketed to around $2,000 for a round trip, a premium of about 30 per cent."

He says the idea of being around family and friends at home seems very important to expats. On the other hand, Sarkar is one of the cynical tribe who don’t think it’s anything to go wild about. He pauses... Or maybe he will as it starts getting frenzied.

While Sarkar’s celebrations are still just ideas, Balaji C. Krishnan of the Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, is looking forward to being back in India. "My cousins from Dubai, New Zealand and the US are getting together at our home in Madras. I guess we’re just using the millennium as an excuse to meet as we have not been able to do it for the last 20 years," he says.

Are the frenzied millennium plans then just an excuse to break out of the hackneyed years of drinking varied alcoholic beverages, dancing to the changing tunes of each generation and singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight? "Let’s face it," says Sunam Sarkar, marketing head at Apollo Tyres, "only once in 35 generations does one get to see a new millennium. So what’s wrong with all the hype?"

Nothing really, says Arun Budhiraja, business head (leisure tourism), itc. "It’s just the most glorified New Year’s Eve. An opportunity for the travel trade to exploit it. It’s an opportunity in a thousand years to stretch that rupee or dollar," he snorts.

And there’s a lot of stretching going to be done. According to Budhiraja, most of the educated middle and upper middle class are going to travel. Agrees Maj Yadav, proprietor, Wanderlust Travels: "In this segment, over 40 per cent Indians will be travelling with 7 to 8 per cent going overseas. For the first time, most Indians will be spending New Year’s Eve out of their homes." And barring the cautious who don’t want to end up twiddling their thumbs at the end of a jaded century—a Friday—most Indians are still to decide what to do for the event of the century. And it’s not just you or me who’s still grappling with the millennium meltdown. The popular Indian sentiment is that "three months is a long time".

Not what Amitabh Jhingan of Delhi found out, though. An executive in an mnc, Jhingan and a dozen friends wanted to go to Bangkok for the millennium. But even as early as August, there weren’t any bookings to be had. "Then we decided on Colombo and that too because somebody organised an apartment. We still don’t know what we might do there but we presumed that familiar party places like Goa must have been sold out ages ago."

Tour operator Raman Narula of Holiday Representations reiterates that this year’s party will cost Indians dear. Prices all over for hotels and resorts have been jacked up by 300 to 400 per cent. Five-star hotels in India which are the prime movers and shakers of innovative revelry packages are charging up to Rs 5,000 for an evening’s dinner, dance, fireworks display and unlimited champagne. Cruises, another popular party option, taking off from Singapore and doing the rounds of the Andaman, Thailand and Malaysia seas, are already full up. That too at almost double the normal rates. "We were booked up months in advance—actually, a year in advance—and not by Indians. We are getting enquiries from Indians now but there’s nothing we can do," says a Star Cruises spokesperson.

What’s happening is that Indians are family-and-friends-oriented. Everybody wants to be together, so there’s a lack of coordination and consensus. Take, for instance, the Bhambals of Gurgaon. Says Mohini Bhambal: "We just know that a group of us—say about 20 to 30 friends—may be going to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and party on the Maharaja of Jodhpur’s private railway carriage. We still don’t know whether anything’s been finalised."

There’s too much pressure to perform, says Budhiraja. But part-time marketing consultant Sonia Nikore and spouse Sanjeev have found a way to beat the heat. Keen to ‘do something different’ and unable to decide, they’ve booked themselves in the Maldives, Mauritius and Singapore. "There’s a thrill in the fact too that one still doesn’t know where one might end up," says Sonia.

The millennium bug has hit small-town India as well. Pradeep Dhariwal, who owns a Raymond’s retail store in Raipur, and steel alloy tycoon Anand Goyal are off with their families to Switzerland and London. Have they made reservations? "Oh yes, these days everything’s online," says Dhariwal. Vijay Jain of Itarsi Oils is joining the multitude at Times Square while architect Diva Kirti, also of Raipur, plans to watch the sunrise in Tonga. Where in heck did he hear of Tonga? "Fashion TV, of course."

There are then two distinct groups to emerge from this millennium mayhem. The minuscule percentage who have already made their plans and the hordes who haven’t. Again, of the former, it’s the younger lot who are striking out for exciting, foreign pastures. The 35-plus prefer to stay in India, finding their getaway among the few Indian destinations which are trying their best to cater to the excitement and numbers. Namely Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Khajuraho and the Andamans. Nepal is another option. Where else does one go? Not to the mountains, surely, at the end of December.

Says Palani: "The break is too short for most families to really want to spend that kind of money on just 4 or 5 days in an exotic overseas location. Also, a number of people have been bitten by the Y2K bug, there’s this fear of flying." Agrees Anand of Aerospatiale: "My friends were a little nervous of flying during that time but I’ve convinced them to fly before and after December 31. The fear, though, is unnecessary because precautionary measures are stringent."

But such anxieties aren’t really stopping millions from crisscrossing the globe. There’s so much happening all over. The highlights: ushering in the first rays of the millennium sun on the Coral Coast of Fiji, though—according to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, say Indian officials proudly—the first official sunrise of the millennium will be at Katchal, an isle 230 nautical miles south of Port Blair. That’s because officially the millennium strikes at midnight gmt, when it’s dawn there. The tourism ministry, says Ashok Pradhan, director general, tourism, and chairman, itdc, "is inviting liners to anchor near Katchal so that revellers can view the historic event".

The new millennium officially starts in Greenwich, where the Millennium Dome is being built. Ongoing exhibitions, live performances and virtual reality arenas will usher 2000 in. The 35,000-capacity place has already sold out. New York’s Times Square will be jammed with half-a-million merrymakers for a 24-hour celebration with giant screens flashing what’s happening in other parts of the world. London pubs will invite one helluva hangover by staying open 36 consecutive hours. At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, a street dance on either side of the former Berlin Wall will celebrate again the end of this no-man’s land. New Zealand is selling its first sunrise in Gisborne. Places like Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati in the South Pacific, where the International Dateline makes an elusive crossing, are all quibbling over the first rays of the sun. Las Vegas is hosting the largest ‘New Year’s Extravaganza’ with a 2,000 gun salute and the longest-running concerts with stars like Barbara Streisand, Elton John and Tina Turner. A savvy Michael Jackson will exploit time zones to perform two concerts, one in Sydney and the other in Honolulu. Then there’s Australia, which is on a huge promotion drive. It’s paying off. Indians are rushing in droves Down Under, estimated Indian travellers for ’99 being almost 40,000.

In all this hoopla, is India falling short and the Indian being shortshrifted? Why doesn’t a country with 5,000 years of heritage, leave alone a 1,000, know what it really wants to do and is most low-profile about its celebrations, the only highlight being the recent discovery of Katchal’s special position on the globe? Shouldn’t the tourism ministry have lent a helping hand to the confused if merry masses instead of leaving the task to a handful of private tour operators and hotels to surprise the Indian with a trick or two?

The ministry has taken a true-blue purist stand, unconcerned about the fact that it just might prove itself to be the greatest party-pooper of the millennium. "Our priorities are different," says Pradhan. "The millennium actually begins in 2001. So we are celebrating a year, not a particular day." To this end, the ministry to its credit had drawn up a calendar of events beginning April 1999, touted as Explore India Year which stretches right up to March 2000. Just don’t ask them what to do on December 31, ’99.

Pradhan’s views are shared by a number of people, who stubbornly insist that the turn of the millennium does not technically start until 2001. Says Rukmani Parthasarathy, a journalist: "What plans? I have the whole of next year to plan." Agrees TV anchor Gitanjali Aiyer: "What’s the hype all about? I don’t feel there’s anything special about all this. After all, it’s December 31, 2000, we should be looking at."

True, but who’s listening? People like art historian Alka Pande of Chandigarh who’ll be away on the day have made sure that their families join them wherever they are. Pande will be in London working away at an arts scholarship. Says she: "My husband and daughter will join me there for the celebrations. As soon as I get there this month, I intend to check out the options. And there’s going to be a grand choice, I’m sure."

Unless you join the race now, you just might be left sulking at home. Or you could be part of the intellectual milieu who’ve other kinds of parties lined up. Like writer Sunil Gangopadhyaya. "I’m going to be in Calcutta because the biggest event for the Bengalis will be held here.