‘Night’ Life in a Metro!
The episode between Mohit Kamboj and MP Sanjay Raut (happened because Mohit was present at a restaurant cum bar) led to one thing for sure. The following weekend after the scuffle, I believe now for at least for the entire month all pubs, nightclubs, restaurants cum bars in Mumbai will be shut by Mumbai police on time. Last weekend cops did enter many of the popular nightclubs in Mumbai on both Friday and Saturday nights at 1:00 am sharp so that the deadline of 1:30 am did not pass and forced the guests to leave the place thus bringing a complete halt to otherwise a very popular nightlife scene of Mumbai city. My moot question here is for how long will the cops enter a place to shut down before the stipulated time? One more weekend, one month and then what and that too at places of their choice? Is this the solution for an international city like Mumbai?No, I don’t think so….
Please note, I am not against nightlife. But yes, I am surely against many things that happen there. Let’s keep those things for some other time to discuss. One thing we all have to accept is that moral policing will not help the youth. We have to accept that our current and many more generations to follow will taste this concept of ‘nightlife’. It does not make them bad, nor does it remove any Indianness from them, if you feel ‘partying, socialising and having a good time’ is not our culture. So accept it, those who can afford it, shall do it. Sooner or later we have to accept the concept of westernisation. Nightlife existed earlier from the ’70’s and it will continue to do so. But then we as a society do need to answer a few questions.
No one visiting night clubs or pubs these days would want their enjoyment curtailed and be asked to go home at 1:30 am on a weekend. But then the government is right too. How? Today nightclubs in Mumbai are scattered everywhere in the residential areas along with their presence in commercial zones. We speak of Mumbai here today. Right from being in the middle of a thickly residential area to being located where once mills stood, there are night clubs even at Koliwada and can be found within a few meters of Hospitals too. Obviously these areas (residential) get disturbed as more than 200-300 patrons leave the clubs at nights creating noise, continuous honking of cars bought by valets, rickshaws, loud talking, creating ruckus and disturbing the sleep of average Mumbaikar after midnight. Then when patrons leave these pubs and bars, there are 5 star hotels and restaurants or your bhurji stalls near every local station which gets swamped by drunk men and women resulting in total commotion and crowd getting dispersed everywhere in the city.
I thought long about this as to what should be a SOP for this. First being a 40 year old, I (“I” is just to give an example) myself will enter into a club like an average Mumbaikar beating the traffic say around 10:30 pm. To be asked to leave within 3 Hours after spending a few thousands at a club leaves me frustrated. I then gather my few friends and order food online and I straight away head home for the remaining part of the party. Now, the problem arises when my music goes loud and disturbs the whole building. Again there are cops and I have to ‘manage’ my way out. I am in high spirits, mind you! But then the party has to stop. The home atmosphere gets spoiled, the building gets disturbed. It wouldn’t have happened if I had clubs that were accessible to me all night.
By the way, those who don’t know, a lot of businesses thrive due to the nightlife of Mumbai. Cigarette sellers, tea vendors, night long restaurants/bars, taxis, private cabs and so many other allied businesses.
Now coming straight to the point. There should be absolutely NO TIME LIMIT for Mumbai or any other metro cities of our country to stop partying. We are an international city. We ought to have night long party clubs in Mumbai. Every major city and country has it, why not us? But then how do we cope with the residents getting disturbed? My thought process says BMC and planners of the city need to demarcate areas for such pubs/nightclubs where we have more commercial activity. Now these specific designed zones will be called as Entertainment Zones just like how we Grounds (G), Recreational Grounds (RG) demarcated in the BMC…Compulsorily these Entertainment Zones should be allocated space in these office areas. For example in Mumbai all these nightclubs, pubs, bars can be clustered in the BKC area, Lower Parel, near Mahalaxmi racecourse, Andheri East (nearby to Seepz) and so on and so forth. Everything should be made available in these areas. Remove all night Thela’s serving Pav Bhaaji and Bhurji Pav from residential areas near local stations and park them in these entertainment zones. Have cab stations placed here, make valet services available, have your wine shops here, paanwaala’s, the tea-coffee vendors on cycles in this area only. Anyone operating outside these entertainment zones (these night vendors) to be penalised heavily as most of these vendors are night operators. I will go one step ahead and say even marriage banquet halls should be given permissions in these areas too.
This will reduce unnecessary crowding of ‘drunk’ people near station areas where at times MUmbaikars leave for work at 5:00 am. I have seen numerous fights emerging when a drunk person is having his midnight meal at 4:30 am (after partying the whole night) and a Mumbaikar leaves to catch a Train to reach his work-place. I am sure this is a common sight for people living in MMR.
Now with entertainment zones, I don’t intend to move restaurants from the residential areas. The Restaurant business is not so bad for the cops or authorities to handle. Last order is at 11:30 pm and by hook or crook these places shut by 11:45 max even if it serves alcohol. These places aren’t troublemakers, the nightclubs, pubs are.
Time to plan our city !!
Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
