Several college kids acted responsibly without losing out on their cool quotient. They partied to their heart’s content, but ensured to hire a temporary driver or a cool cab to keep them off the wheels. And though one’s heart goes out to the families of the Marine Drive students, there are many accidents that were averted thanks to stringent policing and

perhaps a brutal media.

Alison Saldanha, a first-year BA student from St Xavier’s College went for a dance party at Bandra Gymkhana and returned with her friends and cousins at 1.30 am. “We

decided to take a driver,” she says. “Plus, our parents instructed us to come straight home after the party was over.”

Sometimes, being a little uncool is a blessing. Having a friend who doesn’t drink is important on nights out as driving home would not be a problem. That’s what Kevin L, an aspiring MBA student who lives in Marol did. Kevin and his friends went for a drive to Bandra’s Bandstand after a party. “We were stopped by the police there at 1.30 am,” he says, “But they left us immediately as the friend who was driving the vehicle had not consumed alcohol.”

Some chalked out smarter plans of returning the next day to avoid the traffic. To avoid getting caught by the police, Srikanth Ananthkrishnan, a second-year BMM student from Khalsa College, spent the night in a hotel near his party venue.

“We partied all night at Vashi. We were sure we’d be too tired or inebriated to come back. We booked a room at a hotel in advance, and returned the next day,” he says.

But 20-year-old Abhishek Dhusia seems to have had the most fun.