But in Mumbai, I notice more and more, going out at night is not just about going out at night. Drinking must be accompanied by an activity. On any given day of the week you can find loads of things to amuse you while you drink yourbeer--several karaoke nights for instance. A pub quiz night, set up recently. Theme evenings, where you dress the part. Bars that serve only one kind of alcohol. I recall reading recently about a bar made entirely out of ice that might come up in Gurgaon. People will have to wear special outfits to drink in the sub-zero temperature.
Which brings me to a discussion I was having with a friend last night. We were catching up after many years and the conversation turned to what’s so-and-so doingnow. A large number of the people I remember hanging out with when I was younger had at some point or the other in their20s gone into rehab. "I don’t know why," my friend said.
I think the answer is quite simple. We’re bored. My generation is bored. Everything new came in too fast and we quickly lost the wonder of it all. Cable TV followed by the internet followed by massive globalization of our markets. It used to be cool to walk around and around a market place, drinking Thums Up. Now, hardly anyone goes anywhere without a purpose, a plan, something to do.
But of course we’re bored. We had cushy childhoods. We went to good schools and colleges. Some of us went abroad, but their lifestyles weren’t very different from the ones who stayed behind. Travelling, when I was in college, was defined by the Body Shop lip balm you bought, or the bars you visited with your cousins. And with this need for more and more entertainment, naturally a lot of people turned to drugs as the best form to alleviate boredom. In fact, a poem I have up on my bulletin board by John Berryman defines it: