First of all: thank you for the opportunity to blog. I’m so excited!
And now, my post:
The city of Bangalore has banned dancing and live music in places that serve alcohol, according to this Indian Express article here.
And according to this friend of mine here:
one Abhi M., who along with famed playwright Girish Karnad and 100 other people, protested the outmoded rule. Karnad spaketh thus:
“It is tyranny of the police. It is against every artiste. Instead of going after criminals the police are going after musicians.”
[Note: Karnad’s first two lines rhyme. A true artiste, that one.]
Apparently Bangalore officials have decided to enforce a part of the decades-old Karnataka Excise Law that prohibits live music and dancing in places that sell alcohol. (Used to be, only the section barring women from dancing was enforced, which led critics to hire dancing eunuchs in bars across the city this past February. Too bad that wouldn’t even be clever this time around.)
Abhi tells me,
“it’s an outdated law that’s being dug up by immature and backward-thinking bureaucrats and cops.”
But those Bs and Cs have their defenses. Says Bangalore’s Police Commissioner in an NDTV article:
“There is no [dance] ban on discos. They have to obtain a license and they can function.”
The article goes on to say however, that not one such license has been granted in the past four years to the many places that have requested them, according to sources in the police department.
The law is being used to temper progress, and the upshot is that the city is confused. I saw it myself two years ago.
My family is from Bangalore, and we’ve been back many times. Until recently, the visits revolved around seeing old people, the oldest members of our family tree who held the roots in their hands. We ate chakli and listened to talk of the city becoming dustier, the weather apparently degrading to levels higher than balmy, and the comings and goings of cousins I didn’t know.
And then something magical happened. My cousin Vijay – who I did know – nabbed a job at Accenture and headed to its largest hub. That’s right, I know you know it: Bangalore.
Giddy with the shock of being near fellow “engsters,” I trotted wide-eyed alongside Vijay that first night out in the city, my very first night out in all those years of visiting it. We pub-hopped and told stories. I met his many friends, all of whom were smart, funny, attractive and nice. The city seemed made for them and they for it and ne’er the two would not meet. Until….
11:30. That good ol’ excise law again, my friends. At half past 11, Vijay and his friends informed me, all fun stops. The bars close and people are sent home. What had been a normal late-night scene became a sleazy Scar Face-esque run-around where we ducked into the back rooms of bars we knew would serve us past midnight if we slid extra bills their way, while all around us less rupee endowed customers were forced to leave. New Year’s Eve – a week later – would prove to be worse than all the other nights, with the city enforcing an 11 o’clock closing time to make absolutely certain no hooliganry could ensue.
I felt like I was back at my aged relatives’ places, only this time I was partying surreptitiously in their stairwells while they slept.
I love my kin, please don’t mistake me. They make me understand my life. But I don’t think they represent the direction of the city. In fact, I don’t think they want to. It is a place that has experienced almost unmanageable growth, like a boy who shoots up two feet when he’s already 17 (I’ve seen it happen). It’s gangly and awkward and just starting to realize, “Hey! I look good now! And people want to date me!”
The solution to growing attractive is not to close oneself off, at least not in my opinion. Banning music and dance backpedals against the flow of Bangalore’s greatness, against the idea of why it is good for poor people to make money and have toilets. If one is working, one should also be dancing.
I have no doubt these kinks will work themselves out as Bangalore’s youth gains more control. But for now, a world-famous business center fears the sort of revelry and energy that inevitably comes with progress, and that, I think, is too bad.
