Power, style, passion, obsession, and cool-quotient. These are the five weighty parameters our team of editorial experts-Know them? They gave up pursuit of all these in order to bring you the wondrous magazine you hold in your hands-considered while evaluating a destination's standing as a male shrine. Sexist? You bet, but in the interest of fairness and all that the next issue will feature a list of 10 Female Shrines. Hey, are there 10 of that? By Dipayan Baishya in Mumbai with T.R. Vivek in Delhi and Venkatesha Babu in Bangalore.

1 RELIGION
THE ITC CLASSIC GOLF COURSE/GURGAON

This golf resort, spread over 300 acres, has the distinction of having the first course in South Asia designed by the legendary Jack Nicklaus. Big deal? For golfers, it is. Golf being golf, membership charges at the course have risen steadily from Rs 2.5 lakh in 1996 to Rs 4.5 lakh today. The profile of its 1,600 members is staggering: a third are ceos; the other two-thirds has an equal sprinkling of corporate execs, diplomats and bureaucrats. Super-bureaucrat K. Padmanabhiah is on the list. As are Amar Raj Singh of Johnnie Walker, Simon Scarff of GlaxoSmithKline and, Scott Bayman of GE. Everyone swears by the course. "It's a very challenging course and one of the most member-friendly clubs anywhere in the world," gushes Ashwin Kapoor, the Managing Director of Uniproducts India, a supplier to car-maker Maruti. Then, there are the people he'll meet on the greens.

2 COIFFURE
JACQUES DESSANGE/MUMBAI & DELHI

Heard of a destination salon? Well, for sometime, before a branch opened at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel, the city's smartset would jet down to Delhi, all for a hair-styling session at Jacques Dessange. The trained hairstylists and three trained-in-France masters (one in Delhi and two in Mumbai) are a draw. Actors Suniel Shetty and Akshaye Khanna, businesspeople (think surnames such as Wadia, Ambani and Goenka), and politico Sharad Pawar swear by the Mumbai salon. As do Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi, industrialist Anil Nanda, lawyer Kapil Sibal and super-doctor Naresh Trehan by the Delhi one. Don't let the big names intimidate you. As Prue Rajan, the manager of the Mumbai outlet puts it, "Our motto is to treat every customer like a star."

3 SARTORIA
THE ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA STORE/MUMBAI

It may be located in Mumbai's crossroads mall, but the only Ermenegildo Zegna store in India is definitely not at the crossroads of fashion. The store opened in December 1999; any other, that has had just 700 customers since, would consider itself a failure; Zegna's manager views it as a measure of the brand's exclusivity. "Our patrons in India are the leading lights of business, banking, politics, and films," he says, adding that he can't divulge specifics without breaching client confidentiality. The store has a range of ready-to-wear garments and accessories (Rs 1,999 for a pair of socks), but it is its Su Misura service that appeals to the chosen few. This is Zegna's made-to-measure offering; its reps visit customers, take measurements and recommend fabric; and the suit is stitched in Switzerland and shipped to India. A custom-made suit in wool that is 15.5 micron thick (ultra-thin, actually) could set you back by a neat Rs 109,999. Still, it's a Zegna.

4 BASIC INSTINCT
TOPAZ NIGHTCLUB/MUMBAI

Mumbai is replete with what the locals term 'ladies bars'. Topaz looks like one of the ilk. It is and it isn't. It does have its dancing girls but its owner Pervez K. Reisi says, "We keep a strict watch on the (kind of) people who come in." The crowd is polished and predominantly male. The ground floor is pleb, some 40 girls dancing desultorily to the latest Hindi-pop tune, encouraged by patrons showering them with C notes. The first floor is where you're likely to find businessmen and investment bankers out carousing. The lounges on this floor-Mujra and VIP-are a hit with multinational companies that book them for parties. The VIP lounge is made up like the setting of a typical Bollywood motion pic and the dancer to patron ratio is higher; the music is predominantly Hindi, but Reisi assures us that English numbers are played during "special parties". Not to worry: music is the last thing on the audience's mind.

5 POWER-HAUNT
BELVEDERE CLUB/OBEROI/MUMBAI, BANGALORE, & DELHI

The aggregate market value of the companies whose chief executive officers are members of the Belvedere Club will likely account for 80 per cent of the value of any stock exchange in India: Azim Premji, the Ambanis, the Mittals, the Munjals, the Bajajs, the list goes on. Membership to the exclusive business club is vetted by East India Hotels Chairman P. R. S. 'Biki' Oberoi personally, and comes with a Rs 3.5 lakh entry fee and an yearly subscription of Rs 30,000. That's chump change for its members.

6 SINEW
GOLD'S GYM/MUMBAI

Fitness became a fashion trend more than a decade ago and there's no doubting the fact that places like Gold's Gym-the chain has a presence in 25 countries-played a part in that. Eleven months into its existence, the sole Gold's G in India is doing very well, thank you: The 14,000 square feet outlet attracts 100 new members a month; on an average members spend around Rs 30,000 a year. Around 450 people-a little more than half of them, men-visit the gym everyday; and in the evenings the place turns into one big carnival with small groups learning to become (or stay) fit through yoga, salsa, aerobics, even dancing to the latest Bollywood numbers. "Staying fit is a state of mind," says Sunil Lulla, Executive Vice President, Sony Entertainment Television, and a regular. "There is nothing effeminate about men being passionate about fitness and looks." Adds Leena Mogre, CEO, Gold's Gym, "Men are fast realising the importance of staying fit." Which could explain why, apart from Lulla, construction magnate Niranjan Hiranandani, Zenta's Arun Mansukhani, and industrialist Yash Birla frequent Gold's.

7 HIC!
THE VODKA LOUNGE, INSOMNIA/MUMBAI

The place to be in Mumbai after 11.30 p.m. is Insomnia, the nightclub at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Young pros, i-bankers, ad-people, models and assorted celebrities think so. Still, this isn't about Insomnia. It is about one of its lounges, the peerless Vodka Lounge. This serves 19 brands of Vodka including de rigueur names such as Absolut, Finlandia, Stolichnaya, and Grey Goose. And it's the place of choice for people such as Raymond's Gautam Singhania, Star's Peter Mukherjee, Thomas Cook's Ashwini Kakkar, and a clutch of other worthies. A few metres, across levels, separate the lounge from the club's high-energy dance floor, but a few sips of Stoli can make the activity seem miles away.

8 FREE-WHEELING
DESTINATION POINT/DELHI

As you take your position in the box seat, behind the wheel, enjoy a final moment of peace before the 10-minute-adrenaline-pumping-madness begins. The mechanic barks a customary "left for brake, right for acceleration" instruction, and off you go. Destination Point, a go-karting track run by an auto enthusiast Rajeev Khanna and his 20-something daughter Meha, is the closest most of us get to realising our Formula 1 fantasies (even Schumi started off on a kart). The record (2.20 minutes now) for the fastest lap at this track is broken almost every day. The racers are mostly young men who shell out a modest Rs 150 for a six-lap round. For most of us who don't have the money for a Ferrari and the influence to get the local stadium opened up for a private run-that's what one celebrity does-this is as good as it gets.

9 COLLARED
THE CHARAG DIN STORE/MUMBAI

Four floors, 10,000 square feet, 25,000 unique shirts, and a customer list that includes lawyer-politico Ram Jethmalani, Malayalam cinema's twin-superstars Mamooty and Mohanlal andbusinessmen Azim Premji and Vijay Mallya. That's the Charagh Din experience. Raju Daswani, the owner, manages the store. It's his job to select the 20-25 new designs that are introduced every day. These come from a universe of 150 new shirts designed by Charagh Din's five in-house designers, day after day. Prices range from Rs 330 to Rs 5,600 but why look at the tag when exclusivity is guaranteed?

10 HIGH FIDELITY
THE PRO FX GLOBAL THEATRE/BANGALORE

At first sight, the showroom displaying audio products tucked away in one corner of Barton Centre, a mall of sorts on Bangalore's arterial Mahatma Gandhi Road, looks innocuous. Only when you step in do you realise that its clean no-fuss looks are aimed at acoustic perfection. This is BPL's pro FX Global Theatre, a showroom for high-end audio products. "We allow visitors to reserve demo rooms," says Manmohan Ganesh, Business Head, pro FX. "And we encourage them to bring their own CDs or DVDs." When BT visits the outlet, two techies from a Bangalore based software company are listening to a Pink Floyd number-techies are partial to Floyd. "This is heaven," says one. With CDs/DVD players and amps from Denon and speakers from kef and Celestion it had better be. Prices start from Rs 42,000 and go right up to Rs 20 lakh. Fidelity doesn't come cheap.