Of Excitements and Disappointments

Well, all of you who have read my previous post would have known what I was doing for this New Year. The plan was grand and rapturous. Since we had very little time planning everything, we missed out to check out the mood of one important person, the Rain God. Gosh, southern California is supposed to be dry and warm. So we were lethargic and condoned to check the weather. We started off on time (30th, 6 PM) and reached LA earlier than we expected (31st, 5 AM). The hotel that we had booked did not allow us to do an early check-in. So we had to book another hotel for sleeping that morning.

Then, it all started one by one. It started raining cats and dogs in LA. We were barely able to get off the car. Imagine, how it would feel if you are not able to see anything in a place that you had visited with high hopes. We drove through Malibu and the drive was grotesque. I went agog when I saw the palatial houses built over the hillocks facing the Pacific Ocean. It’s a dream place to live-in and undoubtedly one of the costliest abodes in the whole earth. On the way, we saw a Hindu temple and decided to have a look at it. My friends had a good darshan and I had a good lunch!

We returned back to check-in in the hotel that we had booked in earlier. To our dismay, we found that the place was wretched and run down. We were planning to go to a good club to enjoy the New Year party. As we were new to the place, we dint exactly know which club would be the best. So we decided to start off early and look out for the clubs. Adding to our woes, all the good clubs were booked for the night. We became a perfect case study for Murphy’s Law! But just to put a full stop to our cribbing, we ‘sighted’ good chicks in party wears. Desi girls were predominant in the crowd. We were ogling at our ‘very own’ girls clad in revealing wears. Wow, Indian damsels look like goddesses if they wear the right outfits. Then we had a very good dinner at a Thai restaurant.

Sad and disappointed with no place in a club, we decided to go to the beach to welcome the New Year somberly. The time was 11.40 PM and the countdown had already started for 2006. We reached the Redondo Beach at 11.50 PM and found out there were hardly two people apart from us. One lady was watching the ocean pensively and it was obvious from her looks that she was in no mood to party and was enjoying her solitude. Another one was taking her dog on a walk in the beach. So it was just five of us left in the beach to do whatever we wanted to greet the New Year. We just shouted “Happy New Year” on top of our voices and left the place with emptiness. We went to a liquor shop to get something to drink in our room and enjoy the New Year’s morning. Rum was the instant choice of my friends (they are connoisseurs of drinks!). We headed back to our ‘nice’ hotel room and my friends started enjoying their best thing of the day!

The next morning was sunny and bright. I guess, the Gods wanted to show some mercy on the five poor souls. So we hurried up to the Huntington Beach which was 30 Mi away from LA. We had a nice time playing ball in the beach and taking some nice pictures! In all, we enjoyed the 3 hours that we spent on the beach. Had the rains still continued, our entire trip would have become meaningless. I played to my heart’s content in the beach. It had been more than 9 months since I’ve walked on the sandy shores of a beach! So it rejuvenated my spirits. We dropped off our initial plan to visit San Diego assuming that the weather would not be much different there. So we headed back and reached home at 4.30 AM on the 2nd. We were so tired that we slept till 12:00 PM. One of our friends was kind enough to treat us with lunch at their home. We had a great and sumptuous lunch. My body hasn’t yet coped up with the 1700 Mi drive and it is still begging for more rest. Here I’m sitting at my office trying to complete this post. But my brain goes off and on forcing me to take more than my usual time to post.

But anyways, it was a different kind of an experience altogether. We enjoyed each and everything that came on our way!