Welcome 2008- Sydney style....

Jan 1 2008

First of all a very happy new year to everyone… ‘time flies’ is something we all are reminded at various moments of life… but nothing more than on your x + 1 birthday and the new years…. All you need to do though is make that time count and live life gracefully (or so I think )

So every new year for the last 11 years, I have been out with friends enjoying either get to gethers, parties or clubs etc… but this time it was slightly different…


15 minutes of the best fireworks one will ever see, preceeded by the best performances from the most famous operas, followed by a walk down town in Sydney’s CBD … it was an marvelous way of bidding adieu to what has been an incredible 2007 and welcoming a hopefully even better 2008…


Exactly at 12am – we observed what is known as the world’s best fireworks display… we were at the South foyer Opera house in Sydney with 100,000 other people outside on the roads… and suddenly the sky was full of colours and illuminated the whole harbour as well as the CBD of Sydney… It was a sight to imagine… millions of small crackers going up in the sky and lighting themselves up to emit some light… and all of it collecting together to light up the entire world (well at least there ) … this was the biggest firework display that Sydney has ever had… and it only becomes better every year.

So the setting was like this… we walked out of the opera house on level 2 to the foyer…. Looking straight at the harbour bridge and to our left were the tall buildings of the CBD…. There was water in front of us… and small ships or cruises with bright lights of all kinds and colours… there was a sense of excitement and expectations with a couple of hundred people around me… and like I mentioned thousands around the entire Opera house… CBD… harbour area… there was soft and invigorating music flowing from 2 different directions… and the world just lit up… For 14 or 15 minutes continuous there was a dazzling display of some enthralling fireworks… to the right, left… dead cenntre… above us… all around…

Well guess what – I have myself shot a video of the entire display and will try and put up the video on you tube (btw I just realized the youtube was youtube and not utube… funny how things can sound something and spell something else)

The evening earlier was also quite an interesting one… in fact my romance with Australia continued in an wonderful manner… I reached the CBD in the evening and got off at the point where no more vehicles were allowed … for the new years arrangement… the walk down CBD was incredible… open roads… We reached Hyde park which is in CBD at 8pm… started walking towards the opera house… so the feel of this was just extra ordinary… there were no cars or vehicles- as the area was cordoned off for the new year’s celebrations- there were scores of people walking… drinking… laughing… excited… jumping… trying to move closer to the viewing area of the fireworks…
only happy people walking… we in the midst of some astonishing buildings and trendy shops… totally festive… and reached the Opera house… Now I didn’t know what to expect… the fact remains that we were told it is a concert and nothing else… so I went in with no idea what I was in for and to an extent was wondering if I had taken the right decision to go to an opera on new years eve…?

All my fears were set to rest in a very vocalmanner… the 4 singers we heard were some of the best from across the globe, flown in especially for the new years, and they were performing the best bits and parts of the best operas from different generations … and it was divine… the singing, the orchestra, the emotions, the pitch, the voice… wow… 2 hours of enchanting performances one after the other… and a very knowledgeable crowd… I could not believe my luck… listening to the opera at the Sydney opera house on a new years special performance…

Well this performance was followed by the fireworks outside, to which we all, who saw the concert, had a special viewing area – from the opera house…

In fact this opera concert also sums up this year for me.. which was so unlike my first year at Wharton… Before I went to the US, I had a very social life and went out quite a bit to different things… but in my first year at Wharton, I just got caught up with adjusting to my new life… and missed out on different things… not once did I go for a play, or a musical, or did any such activity that I would rather do living in Mumbai (of course we don’t have musicals but we have tons of other things happening…)

So I decided to change things in the summer last year when I went to Mumbai before going to London for my summer job… I started off by revisiting my favourite drama theatre in the world… a small 175 seater theatre called Prithvi in almost the heart of the city of Mumbai – at Juhu… its small, cozy and right in the action where in the stage is at the same level as the first seat and if the person sitting in the first row extends his/her legs… he will be actually stepping on the stage… its such an intimate setting and so real… Then came London… first I went to watch India play England in the cricket… Chelmsford (3 hours from London), Lords (the mecca of cricket) and the Oval … it was great being at the incredible ground ofLords… and enjoyed the first series victory India achieved in England after 21 years…

Then came the Shakespear globe theatre… well well… honestly and embarrassingly I admit… I could understand only 50% of what was being spoken… duh… anyyways… but it was followed by Wicked… the musical – in London again…my first musical ever… and what a great one to start with… lively… melodious, interesting and actually rocking… and London was rounded off by a beautiful day visit to the Roman Bath…

Time to move to the US in August and I started off the fall semester with the US open’s tennis men’s finals… went up to NYC… with Karthik, Ali and Guillaum… it was a great day out and what a fantastic contest where Federrer showed why he was the champion yet again but was given a real run for his money by the young Serbian… Jocovich (I am sure I have messed up the spelling)…

Next was my viewing of Anuradha Pal’s tabla concert at the Irwin auditorium in Philly… the first time I saw a lady tabla player… and boy was she good… her fingers moved like nobody’s business and she actually brought the audience to their feet…

The Met or the Metropolitan in New York next… we watched Aida… thanks to Florian and Guillaum… my first ever opera… and believe again one of the best… in fact Florian who is an expert in understanding operas said that it was one of her best viewings… it was so different from regular operas… they had so many props… and dancers… and actual horses on stage : )… lively… romantic… tragic… thrilling… it had everything… And guess what, the Met is the only second opera hall with individual screens for translations… and I started liking operas… because of the emotions they convey…

What followed, according to me, is the best musical performance I have ever seen… Ustaad Zakir Hussain (for you all who don’t know who this is- he is the best tabla player in the world)and Rahul Sharma )son of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma- the best in Santur) performed a duo… it was like the 2 instruments (tabla for Zakir and the Santur which is a 90 string instrument, for Rahul)… as if they were talking to each other… they were in tandem… complementing and mimicking each other… not once in 2 hours did we feel any change in the synchronization… or the effort and passion and performance… definitely and easily my best ever musical concert… thanks to my friend Meera I was able to go and took a bunch of friends as well – 11 of us…

Before I left Philly, I also managed to go to the Barnes Foundation to see one of the greatest collection of paintings from the 17th to the 20th century… 180 paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 69 by Paul Cézanne, and 60 by Henri Matisse, as well as numerous other modern masters, including George de Chirico, Paul Gauguin, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Maurice Utrillo, Vincent Van Gogh, Maurice Prendergast, etc. Thanks to Dominique I learnt so much about paintings… and the different painters and their styles… it was an amazing experience…

And I ended the year by going to the Melbourne cricket ground for the big Boxing Day test match… followed by the opera at the Sydney opera house… Now this is what Ashish was before he came to Philly… and I am glad to discover him back… and hopefully he keeps up with his interests outside…

I have been often asked, what do I do at these different places mentioned above… “you can’t see right?..” well my answer is simple… I have tons of interests… and believe its just a different feeling being there at these places and some or many of them don’t even need viewing… for others either I have learnt to appreciate them in different ways or with help from instruments (like a radio with live commentary at the cricket) or with the help of my friends who describe things… In fact it is so funny when people (absolutely in good faith) assume that I don’t do these things or go to these places… : )…

So anyways, back to the new year celebrations… after the fireworks, we walked around the CBD in Sydney… beautiful… thousands of people on the streets… drunk (most of them)… enjoying the new year in all kinds of ways… living it up… and I enjoying observing all of this…

So more from down under later…

Wish you a very satisfying and successful new year…