NEW DELHI: Google marked 2021 with a scribble on Friday.
The scribble showed a cuckoo announcing the arrival of 2021, a year marked by uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Yesterday, Google had featured a similar doodle on New Years Eve. “It’s been a cute year, but the 2020 clock is ticking,” Google wrote.
New Year’s Eve was celebrated around the world in a gloomy fashion as the world continued to rebound from a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 1.8 million people in less than a year.
Restrictions were placed on celebrations around the world. In India, a night curfew was imposed in several cities and gatherings were prohibited.
The anxious opening seconds of 2021 fell on the Pacific nations of Kiribati and Samoa from 1000 GMT. The uninhabited Howland and Baker Islands will be the last to capsize towards the New Year.
New Zealand, which has earned praise for its handling of the coronavirus, followed Kiribati and Samoa, with large crowds gathering in Auckland to watch a fireworks display.
In Sydney, Australia’s largest city, fireworks lit up the glittering harbor with a dazzling display, but few onlookers saw in person.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin acknowledged in a New Year’s speech that a second wave of Covid-19 was hitting the nation.
In London, 74-year-old American singer-songwriter Patti Smith was to celebrate the New Year with a tribute to National Health Service workers who died from Covid-19, screened on the Piccadilly Circus screen and broadcast on Youtube.
But due to the alarm over rising infection rates, the big-screen projection was canceled and the tribute could only be viewed online.
In other places, the atmosphere was much more pessimistic.
(With inputs from agencies)
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