New year ushered in Hyderabad, many party-goers forgo masks

Weekend added to the celebratory mood for the New Year revellers across the Twin Cities

Twin Cities and its suburbs ushered in the New Year with fun frolic and enthusiasm after two years of low key celebrations, owing to COVID-19, on Saturday.

The city of Hyderabad like always geared up for new year celebrations on Saturday. There was a huge buzz around the city on December 31st, especially after the two years of pandemic enforced curbs. Citizens were thronging to the bells of New Year and heading to parties at various bars and pubs across the city. The weekend added to the celebrations this year. While people were all in a mood of celebration, masks and other precautionary measures took a back seat. 

Churches across the city, especially the ones in Secunderabad welcomed the New Year with mass. Churches including Church of St. John the Baptist, St. Mary’s basilica and Wesley church were all decorated with lights and blooming with crowds on Saturday evening.

All the city roads witnessed bustling vendors selling accessories for celebrations, like balloons, ice-cream, popcorn. The vendors were busy on the Tank bund where many families had gathered. 

As the sun started setting in the city of Hyderabad and people started to rush back home and to party venues the traffic gridlocks were a common feature. The road from Begumpet flyover till Parade Grounds was blocked with slow moving traffic. Adding to the woes were randomly parked vehicles outside restaurants, bakeries and wine shops.

Food delivery executives could be spotted all across the city as the ratio of people ordering food takes a spike during the occasion. Every major restaurant had one type of crowd waiting to eat food and the other was the delivery boys falling over each other to collect their orders.

No New Year celebration is complete without talking about cakes, from Karachi Bakery in Banjara Hills to Reliance Bakery in Begumpet and Golden Bakery in Secunderabad, all were jam packed. Some of the bakeries had set up a separate stall outside to sell cakes.