Saturday, January 1 2005 09:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: In spite of the glum following the Tsunami disaster, the city kept its spirits high and welcomed the New Year with a bang.

The disaster did slow down the celebrations and some actually stayed away from celebrating the arrival of 2005 but most city dwellers did venture out and their most preferred place were the beaches, sea sides, clubs and hotels.

The Tsunamis, however had one casualty in the form of ban on the private boat parties that has been declared by the Mumbai Port Trust authorities.

A few places in the city cancelled the scheduled celebrations and also returned money to those who had purchased their passes in advance while many more showed their ingenuinity and announced that the certain part of proceeds from the sale of passes would go towards the relief of disaster struck people of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The most favoured destinations for the city's rich and famous were the luxury hotels where parties were held that continued till the wee hours of this morning while those who could not afford such tickets, had their celebrations in their own various ways.

The city residents also burnt the effigy of "Old Man" which is created from old clothes and rags and signifies a passing year.

Celebrations were also carried out in other prominent cities of Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nasik and Kolhapur.