New Delhi, December 29: From paying a bomb on exclusive cabins in five star hotels and nightclubs with live music, world cuisine and limitless imported liquor to meditating in sylvan surroundings, Indians are gearing up to welcome 2006 in the most myriad of ways.

Celebrating the New Year's eve has undergone a huge change and money is the last thing these people have in the back of their minds! A nightclub in Noida has five cabins, each costing twenty five thousand rupees, where a couple can avail unlimited world cuisine, foreign liquor, and champagne all through the night.

The club is also offering an all-inclusive party package for ten thousand rupees per couple and it expects around 2500 people this New Year's eve! "Our USP this year is that people will be able to dance to their favourite type of music on different floors.

We have an eclectic mix of hip-hop, bhangra, progressive house, R&B and of course Bollywood," says Ranvir Singh, Corporate Head, Elevate nightclub, Noida.

Going a step further, Taj Palace in Delhi is offering 'The Amara Dinner' an invitee-only terrace-garden dinner package for a couple for a whopping one lakh rupees! The experience includes a pick up by a vintage car, an exclusive candle lit dinner at the terrace garden with an eight course gourmet that includes beluga caviar, black truffles, wild salmon and fresh oysters, vintage champagne and handpicked French wines.

But the real icing is a diamond-studded ring and sapphire studded cufflinks for the couple! On the other hand, offering a near-God experience, many new-age spiritual seekers are flocking to meditation camps, religious gatherings and midnight yagnas.

Sant Mohinder Singh, a spiritual master, organizes the recital of holy Granth on New Year's eve and it continues till 1 am.

"It is believed that one should usher in the New Year in a spiritual way.

The way you start your New Year, reflects how you are going to be in the whole of next year," he says.

Agrees Kulpreet, an event manager, who is going to Khajuraho for a meditation camp.

"How you begin the New Year has a reflection on the whole year.

Infact, more and more people are realizing this and either prefer spending the New Year's eve in a temple or at their home." Are these 'spiritual' sojourns any cheaper? "Not really," says a Mumbai based banking professional who is heading to Orissa to spend the last weekend of the year doing Yoga.

"I am paying around seventy thousand rupees for my wife and myself.

It is not the yoga really, but just doing something different that attracted me," he confides.

Says psychiatrist Dr Samir Parikh "it is not that five-star hotels would be empty.

A whole lot of people would be going there.

But then some would go to meditation camps while others would be spending at home...

All sorts of people are there." "The way a person spends a New Year's eve just reflects the meaning he attaches to his life.

People want to do something special on that night, it could be partying, meditation, anything," he says.

However, he agrees a large number of people are going the spirituality way because of increased stress and tensions in life.

"Growing stress has led to people realizing the importance of lifestyle correction, and here comes in spirituality, which many feel is the answer�.

And of course there are those who prefer a normal night- from eating out in a neighbourhood restaurant or to jive amongst friends in the lawns of a farmhouse.

"We will have live music, barbecue, lots of booze and a host of games," says Avantika Jhingon, an event manager who is organising a party in a farmhouse in Delhi.

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