Cheers !

“One more hurdle for a longer nightlife in Bangalore has been cleared. The home department has given the green signal for the proposal to extend the deadline for pubs from the existing 11.30pm to 1am.”

This is what appeared in the front page of yesterday’s Times of India. I don’t understand why TOI is so bent upon getting Bangloreans drunk. In fact, I really think most Bangloreans aren’t even familiar with the concept of a night-life … it’s a non-native culture.

Ok fine, Bangalore is a multi-ethnic city, we are linguists, and we understand Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu. We watch all these movies; we celebrate festivals from Holi to Halloweens. Ok fine, I admit, I don’t dance that well (I just drop soap on the bathroom floor, and pretend to step on it unknowingly. If that’s not called dancing, so be it). I’ve never been to a discotheque (ever!). I’ve never been to a pub; if I ever happen to do it (which is probably never), I’d probably order water (and then get kicked out coz I’ll probably ask if they also served masala dosas). So, bottom-line, I don’t understand this ‘nightlife’ concept, and probably I have no right to comment about it.

But with whatever I understand by reading newspapers, reading the crime columns, reading police statistics, and hearing to what friends say, I don’t think we need to have nightlife. That’s not healthy. My friend in college asks “Suhas, Bangalore is such a boring place. If there’s no nightlife, how do you expect us to have fun, relax or beat the stress?” “Sleep” I told her … “Sleep. That’s fun, its relaxing, and is the best stress-buster”. Nature has a way of its own. It keeps us active during the day, asking us to ‘work’. It brings us down in the afternoon, asking us to ‘take it easy, perhaps nap for a while’. Evenings, it makes us ecstatic, telling us to ‘go have fun, shop, eat out, watch a movie, take a walk, dance, sing, and propose to him/her’. Come night, it makes our eyelids droop, and says ‘You had a tiring day. Get some sleep busy-bee’. And experience teaches us, that if nature says it so, better follow it.

Is 1am a time for dancing, and partying, and boozing? Police statistics will tell you how many drunken drivers have run over people sleeping on footpaths, killing them or ending up hurting themselves. Their records will tell you how many cases of sexual harassment have happened around discotheques and pubs midnight, how many murders have been committed, and how many brawls have resulted of this so called ‘nightlife’. And this is not just issues I’m catching from the air. Why do you think the police are so much against this nightlife concept?

11pm deadline is fine. Maybe it is a lot of fun. But have fun till 11pm. Then, come home and sleep. The only people who talk of wanting to have an active nightlife in Bangalore are working in BPOs and Call Centers who have literally spoilt themselves, or papers like TOI which resembles more like a ‘Femina’ or ‘Stardust’ issue, than a ‘proper’ newspaper. These were the guys, who insisted so much on making helmets compulsory (which was absolutely meaningful), these were the guys who started the Lead India Campaign, and these are the guys who think Bangalore needs an extended nightlife. Bullshit !