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Mumbai
OLIVE
OTHER PLACES OF NOTE: Geoffrey's, the Czar Bar, Indigo,
On Toes, Rain, The 80s Bar, The Vie Lounge, Poly Esther's,
Lush
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All
working eves carry WMDs, weapons of male dissuasion
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The
Portmanteau of Ms. Powerful
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A
Little Light Reading...
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TREADMILL
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Pregnancy
And Work
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Hyderabad
10 DOWNING STREET
OTHER PLACES OF NOTE: The new iMAX Theatre, Bottles &
Chimney, Underdeck, Our Place, Minerva Coffee Shoppe, Deccan
Pavilion |
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Delhi
EGO
OTHER PLACES OF NOTE: Qurquoise, Cottage, Olive, Rick's,
Geoffrey's, Agni |
There's one constant
in the qualities working women insist their kind of place (to hang
out) needs to possess-no men. Actually, there are three degrees
to this misanthropy. The first has to do with the physical characteristics
of the place itself: at a discotheque, for instance, or in a pub
that boasts a dance floor single men consider it required of them
to pester single women for dances; when women want to be left alone,
they almost always seem to prefer places that do not have a dance
floor. The second has to do with the kind of men who populate a
place. Delhi's Ego, Olive, Geoffrey's and Rick's score because they
do not seem to have found favour with the brawny crowd that throngs
most other pubs in the city. Bangalore's Spinn-stags aren't allowed;
entry is restricted to women in groups and couples-scores for the
same reason. That's where Sunita Kumar, a 29-year-old software professional
heads with her friends when she wants some time to herself (away
from husband and three-year-old daughter). ''You can enjoy your
drink, nibble at your food, and dance the evening away,'' she grins.
''We have a clique that's really into karaoke, so the places we
head to are Merlin's Bar or Soul Fry or Not Just Jazz By The Bay,''
says Maheep Dhillon, a Mumbai-based director of television shows.
Dhillon's one caveat: the perfect place is one that just lets a
woman be. The third revolves around women-only evenings. The girl's
nights at Mumbai lounge bar Provogue and Chennai watering hole Bike
& Barrel (Wednesdays) are a big hit. Kolkata's Conclave (a club
promoted by Harsh Neotia of Bengal Ambuja) has a section called
Whatchamacallit where women make up more than 90 per cent of the
members. Hanging out doesn't always have to do with music, liquor,
and dancing. At the Nail Bar, in downtown Mumbai, Rs 2,000 will
get you a nail extension with nail art thrown in, while you sip
a coffee, soda, or coconut water, and there are enough women who
shell out that kind of money on an hour snatched from work. And
at Amethyst in Chennai, a lifestyle store located at a 100-year-old
building that used to belong to the Maharajah of Jeypore, working
women congregate to have a bite at Moca, a café that serves
organic beverages, and sit in on concerts and book readings that
happen on the terrace. If that sounds boring, try this: for a bit
of risqué fun, working girls in Mumbai get together, identify
a venue, raise Rs 10,000 and hire a male stripper. Business, the
buzz goes, is booming.
-By Priya Srinivasan, E. Kumar Sharma,
Venkatesha Babu, Arnab Mitra, Ananya Roy and Nitya Varadarajan
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Bengalore
SPINN
OTHER PLACES OF NOTE: 1912, The F Bar, Geoffrey's, The i
Bar |
Kolkata
INCOGNITO
OTHER PLACES OF NOTE: The Hub, Conclave (Whatchamacallit) |
Chennai
AMETHYST
OTHER PLACES OF NOTE: Bike & Barrel, That's limited,
but this is Chennai |
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