Party venues that usually burst at their seams barely had a few hundreds by 10 pm on Monday. Even the honking cars and the bumper-to-bumper traffic — that are these roads’ trademarks — were missing.

Traditionally, the Whitefield and Sarjapur Road neighbourhoods have been the favourite haunts for large party groups on December 31. However, the 1 am deadline set by the officials played spoilsport, though some of the organisers remained optimistic about pulling in the crowds. Raghu Subramanyam of Phase1, that organised the Hollywood 2008 party, said, “The official deadline is 1 am but given the spirit of the evening, the officials have been kind enough to let it spill over a little more.” Others were less polite about it and even derided the police over this policy decision, anonymously of course.

Even the mood of the party seemed a turnaround from the previous years. Most of the couples had made way for families getting together and skimpy attires were replaced by sarees at their traditional best. Susheela, a native of Rajasthan, even had the ghoonghat in place while she boogied to the latest tunes. House music ruled the DJ mixers as international DJs were flown in from as far as Manchester and Amsterdam but the eternal Bollywood favourites also made an appearance.

Security was also beefed up at all these venues, with metal detectors and scanners joining rank with the bouncers and uniformed men. The guests were frisked before being allowed to enter but most them took it in their stride. Neha, a call centre employee, said, “A moment’s inconvenience is a small price to pay for safety.”