Is there life after 11.30 PM for Bengaluru?

Is there life after 11.30 PM for Bengaluru?

If necessity is the mother of invention, the resourceful Bangalore youth have found interesting options to fight the deadline.

Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran
Posted On Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 03:53:23 PM

Once the "Pub Capital of India" where party goers partied up to the wee hours of next day, night life in Bangalore today ends at 11.30 PM. Almost like the Cinderella story, where you better be home by 11.30 or else… get ready to be busted by cops. So, is it the confines of the home after the 11.30 deadline or is it just the beginning of a wild night out for young Bangalore? Bangalore Mirror did a check to see how the Bangalore youth were coping with the ban? Our findings sight that the resourceful revelers have found interesting alternatives…Now, if you find yourself strapped for ideas, read on for some inspiration.

Find an unexplored spot outside town and turn it into a disco
When you can't go to a disco, you make the disco come to you. This group we met does this on a regular basis. What do they do? As Sai, a techie on weekdays and a night owl on weekends explains "we have our favourite haunt which thankfully lies pretty much unexplored and unknown to the general junta. So on weekends, we first go to our favorite club in the city, party till the holy 11.30 PM deadline, and then we drive down to this place (which will stay undisclosed for obvious reasons). There, we just put on our music and dance till the wee hours. We sometimes call the place our very own open-air disco. What's more, the other visitors there really don't complain. They actually come and watch us amused!"

Moonlight Trekking
Moonlight trekking …a random check on blogs of Bangaloreans will reveal that quite a lot of them are putting their adventurous traits to good use, that too at night. Adventure sports companies too are offering such outings. As Vandana, employed with an adventure company says, we started moonlight trekking because it offers a sense of adventure that appeals to the youth and we knew there was an audience ready for it. We offer moonlight trekking camps for both kids and adults. And on further questioning she says, that they have new enthusiasts coming along with the regular clientele. Moonlight trekking and moonlight cycling are two popular options available for night owls. Savanadurga, Manchinbetta, Skandagiri Hills, Kalavarabetta and Ramanagaram are the hot spots for some adventure under a moon lit light!

Go Racing
Oh yes, all drag race enthusiasts continue to burn the rubber in the night. While MG Road was the favourite haunt earlier, before the cops put a stop to it, they now indulge in their favourite sport on roads outside the city. Car race enthusiasts too manage to do their bit. As Pratap says, there was this one time when me and a group of my friends had gone racing in our bikes. We actually were caught in utter amazement when we saw Porsche, Lamborghini and a few other racing cars lined up and when we enquired the owners revealed that the owners had all come to just race on that road. It was an awesome sight! But why do they go racing in the night? "Obvious isn't it?" he asks nonchalantly? You can zip on the road without having to be worried about getting stuck in a jam! And in the night, you also have a kind of anonymity the day doesn't offer.

Evergreen Favourites
These are in addition to the evergreen favourites of going on long drives and partying at home. Home here could mean, your own, your friend's, your friend's neighbour's… you get the picture. A lot of people throw parties at their homes, farm houses and yes rave parties do happen. As Manu, who regularly throws parties at home quips "My friends wait for my parents to go out of town, because that is when we can have a crazy all-nighter!"The only grouse against having a party at home is the fact that you have to take care not to disturb your neighbours.

While we talk about long drives, it's about just zipping off in your cars or bikes to quick getaways outside Bangalore. As Clement, an avid biker says, I like going on long drives because there's nothing that beats the feeling of wind in your hair and face….everything is so lovely and quiet in the night! Driving also has helped us discover some very lovely places that we wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Road to BIAL, Nandi Hills, NICE road make for ideal driving spots.

All-night parties? Bangalore is toeing the line
As far as parties happening on the sly go, Bangalore seems to be toeing the line. When we contacted Rafi, an event manager about all night parties happening quietly, he very frankly said that event management companies didn't do such parties anymore as the parties always tend to get busted. He says "I am always surprised that no matter how quiet we try to keep the party, the police land up and bust them." So much for sneaks! As Pratvii, a PR executive reasons, "the cops get to know about the parties because the organizers pay them for keeping their silence. And if they bust a party despite it, it means they have not been paid enough…"

There is power in numbers. As Mili says, I have a big gang of friends comprising both boys and gals. We just decide on the spur of the moment about what we want to do. Sometimes it's partying till early morn at my friend's house, sometimes its long drives and this one time, we even went to a publicized party that went on till 4 AM. Our weekends are usually grand, but yes, I shudder to think what I'd do if I didn't have such a group of friends and didn't have a car.

Yeah, so what do those who don't have the luxury of a huge group of friends or a vehicle do? Ujwal sums up the situation very well when he says "Oh, after 11.30 PM, I go home to sleep."