This year, as we have seen, the mandatory January 1 question -- what did you do for New Year's -- was a bit more subdued than usual. Firstly it was obvious that the celebrations for new year's eve themselves were low-key. Secondly, people did not want to be seen as insensitive nor presume that the other person had gone out and partied like hell when the city itself was hurting. So it was a tentative question, as though the asker was almost expecting an answer like "nothing, really, we sat at home." This kind of admission at any other time would have sounded like a loser option, but somehow seemed strangely appropriate now.

But of course many of us did go out somewhere, if only to escape the gloom and to start things anew. In a prominent hotel in Mahabaleshwar, where getting a booking anytime from November to March is next to impossible, there were a fair number of guests, but the hotelier remarked that rooms were still available on December 31. The other interesting feature was the large number of families that had come. People had brought along cousins, aunts, old uncles and young tots and even young couples who would otherwise want to be left alone.

All of them danced together and when the clock struck 12 and the fireworks went off, the families hugged each other tightly. It was as if people wanted to have their near and dear ones in close proximity. Did the attacks and the uncertainties of our times make people reach out to their families, I wondered. It was a warm bonding moment, (even if the onslaught of Bollywood music and the complete abscence of any rock or pop was a downer.) We need to watch this closely--is 2009 going to be the year of the family?