Ushering in 2014 with swim in pool with ice blocks

The new year will be heralded by a group of anti-graft activists in Meghalaya with a midnight swim in a pool with floating blocks of ice.
"We expect at least 25 stout hearted people to join me in the midnight swim," Michael Syiem, president of the Forever Young Sports Club, where it has been an annual ritual for the last 15 years, told PTI.
Syiem who has being using RTI as a tool said the swim in icy cold water would make him a tougher person in 2014.
Though the minimum temperature in Shillong was 5 degrees Celsius, 40 ice blocks each weighing more than 50 kg would be placed in the pool to add challenge to the event, Syiem said.

Elsewhere in the state capital, midnight parties would be held in hotels and open spaces.
State-run hotels like Pinewood and Orchid Lake Resort and the nearby picturesque Umiam Lake were packed with visitors with special parties to be organised.
There would also be midnight mass in churches. Services will also be held tomorrow morning.