The Cinderella hour and the nocturnal boomlet

Our City is darkling. Darkling even before the night falls.  ‘Law enforcement’, punctuated by intrusions, dilutions and discouragement, seems to have all the herbs to rid the City of a nightlife, something her global cousins boast of.

It is not a war between the hedonists and the purists. Not completely.

It is a blind belief in a theory that a vibrant nightlife is the stress causing our enforcement agencies the nagging ‘migraine’.

While it is unclear as to what guides the policies emerging from the chambers of the City’s Police Commissionerate––being short-staffed or short-sighted––it definitely is not in sync with the wants of the City. Some argue that it is not even logical. But these are all opinions, which democracy has found ways to package and parcel into territories unheard of.

All this said, Bangalore has two different nights for each day that goes by. One marred by deadlines, and another beyond them, quiet, but not dead.

As the ‘last calls’ in bars, pubs and other watering holes find responses, and, as the men in Khaki blow their whistles, wielding batons in the air, the night of deadline passes.

The shops’ shutters remain down, the glass windows even have mannequins looking the other way past 11.30 pm. But on the streets of Bangalore, a secret business unwinds openly under the ‘diligent’ watch of law enforcement personnel, supported by the imperishable needs of patrons. Drive or ride along some of the important roads in the City’s Central Business District (CBD), barring probably around Commercial Street, tempting touts call out for prospective customers. If Brigade road, for obvious reasons, is the most favourite, touts are found even on other important roads and establishments in Indiranagar, Cox Town, Koramangala, among other places.

That is how open the business is, and the boomlet the deadline is providing is only encouraging, even if it means shelling out extra “fees” to the police and other authorities, on a daily, or monthly basis, depending on the arrangement.

While some of the shops’ secret doors lead one into a different time and space, serving and entertaining even till dawn sometimes, many others are only passages for the messengers who bring back articles to meet your needs in neatly packed dark covers.
“...None of this is cheap though. That is why we need to extend the deadlines. It is almost funny that the cops, on the one hand, shut shops and not so far away, they are allowing people to sell the same products at prices sometimes thrice the actual rate,” said Ganesh Karnik (name changed), a  BPO employee.

For people like Ganesh, and many others from other industries, office timings and deadlines are of no help. They are forced to pay higher rates.

With sale of each unit providing a profit of 35-40 per cent on an average (after the money paid to authorities is deducted), more bars are venturing into the business. On an average, a 180-ml of alcohol (regardless of the brand/kind) is sold at double the price, while beers cost more than double. Even carbonated drinks are not spared, often costing 1.5 times more.

The business though, is not limited to the CBD. According to police sources who did not want to be named, it probably originated in the bylanes of localities.

“Local bars are known to serve alcohol behind closed shutters and even give out parcels when trusted people knocked. The trend as eventually moved to even commercial areas,” one of them said.

None of the patrons will name these places for reasons of losing them to ‘ law enforcement’, but they are not secret hiding places, even the newest person in Bangalore can find herself/himself such a place, especially in the CBD, where business is more open.
In other areas, the business happens between close customers and word-of-mouth references. Add to these the safe havens of highway stopovers, and the night virtually never ends.

So, are people really heading homewards past 11.30 pm? May be not all of them. And those who are not are only losing more, thanks to the deadline.