Night Life in Madras: Part 3

Madras -Chennai night life-late 20th century early 21st century

 

 “Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, has a happening nightlife and a number of discotheques, to add to its glitz and glamour. These discotheques provide you an opportunity to set the floor on fire and have a rocking night experience. As the sun goes down, the spirit of the falling dark engulfs the, otherwise, historic city of Madras and its people, to lure them into pleasurable activities. There are many options available in the city to enliven your late night hours, such as pubs, discos, lounges, etc. Here, you can groove on some foot tapping numbers amidst revolving lights, colorful people and chill bars, which make the environment intoxicating, forcing you to want more.”

 

Courtesy- www.chennai.org.uk/entertainment/disco-in-chennai. 

 Oh! Are we talking about the same city - the dowdy Madras? How did it get there so fast? We have to go back to certain events and persons who made the change possible and made the coy Madras into the brash Chennai.

 

The first was the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the elevation of her son Rajiv as the prime minister. Now Rajiv was basically a pilot who appreciated the importance of computers and he made the importing of computers easy and was responsible for the later computer revolution in India. And this in turn led to the IT revolution and India found its niche and became a major outsourcing country.

 

This created a very large number of people young with money to spend looking for a way to have a good time. Rajiv also introduced the five day week for government employees and there was another crowd who took up spare employment and had more time and money to spend. Rajiv had an Italian wife and we do not know if that connection had anything to do with the subsequent development of wineries in India. Rajiv was assassinated in 1991, but his actions had a launched a revolution from which there was no looking back. Soon imports of foreign liquor were allowed and the stage was set for the night life to take off.

 

Imagine a large clientèle of youngsters with money to spend and who wanted a nice place to relax in their spare time. Youngsters from all spectrums of society thronged to newly opened discos and bars to drink and dance away their worries. The muted lights with psychedelic revolving spot lights carried you on a magic carpet to another make believe world and you had a choice of being in an English bar, Sultans harem or Bavarian bier house. Girls who would not been seen with boys two decades ago were dancing with them crushed together like sardines packed in a tin. Social taboos were steam rolled. You had authentic crooners from all over the world to croon away your blues. The celebration of Valentines Day, Xmas, the New Year, rivaled those abroad. Things got so riotous that the authorities had to insist that discos and bars closed at midnight. The regulations on the ban on smoking in public areas improved the smoke filled air of the discos.

 

Madras created a new type of entertainment called “Day night Life” for the ladies. The wives of rich young IT professionals wanted entertainment during the day as their husbands returning late at night were too tired for anything but sleep. Into this stepped the discos with ladies only lunch cum entertainment. In some of Kalidasa's plays there are descriptions of erotic scenes which, without going into details, give glimpses and leave a lot to the imagination. I shall adopt this method in describing what went on. Kalidasa writes of dalliances with couples rubbing off sandalwood paste smeared on their bodies. The modern version was to use chocolate paste. I t caught on and became so popular that it was reported in the yellow magazines and the police stepped in!

 

All the night life was not just discos and sardine dancing. There was a lot that catered to genteel tastes. There were supper theaters with plays followed by gourmet dinner and to work it off  sardine dancing. The plays were eclectic: from social themes to comedy to classics and modern versions of old classics. Then there were concerts to suit all tastes, from raucous rap to chaste Carnatic, from the drumbeats of the Caribbean to Vikuu Vinayakaram and Zakir Hussain with their beats based on high flown mathematical series. There were classical dances and modern dances, Indian dance forms in their purely traditional form and their modern variants and much more to choose from to spend an evening. Side by side you had the entertainment of vintage discourses in temples, mythical plays and the Ramayana from Sita’s point of view, the Ramayana from Ravana's perspective painting Rama as villain.

 

These and many more kept the night life of Chennai alive and throbbing and a city which used to go to sleep early, now keeps awake most of the night. There is something for every taste from the trivial to the sublime, from rap to carnatic, from sardine dancing to Bharatanatyam, from the religious discourses to the simple pleasure of enjoying nature at its best on the seashore. Except for the casinos you have a veritable choice.

 

The one thing which has changed is atrocious traffic with autos out numbering the humans making for traffic snarls all the time. It is impossible to walk on the roads and difficult to plan for anything. Parking space is difficult to find and if you want to do night hopping, use a driver. The pollution levels are above acceptable limits. This means no night drives to Mahabalipuram as Waran used to do. Lorries and mad drivers make it dangerous even on the new East Coast Road. So if you want to have party outside the city, drive to the place early and spend the night there. The police are also very active on the roads with their breath test and so beware- do not drink and drive- you will find it expensive. You can return to the city next morning, still have a swim in the Besant Nagar beach, walk the alcohol off in the Theosophical Society and have the three foot diameter ghee roast and Kumbakonam degree coffee in Rayar Mess! Some things never change and you can still sit in the Marina beach at night, munching 'manga thenga sundall' and kai murukku enjoying the lovely sea breeze almost through the year.

 

One moonlight night our old friend Iyer decided to take his son in law Iswaran from Dubai to the beach late at night to enjoy the sundal and murukku with a couple of pegs of Royal Salute. Both of them were dressed casually in baniyans and lungi. Iyer was bald but had a beard  like a mullah. Iswaran had a mop of hair and a full grown beard and looked like a terrorist. They were sitting on the seashore watching the tides and the moon hanging over the sea. They had just started their second peg when they were surrounded by a posse of policemen armed with Kipling Enfields (unloaded of course). “Thullkka payalayes ennada seiral?”

 

Remonstrance was no good and they were herded into a police van and taken to Triplicane police station to be charged with terrorist activities. This just a few months after the Bombay attack and the country was on high alert. The night officer in charge of the station had one look at them and ordered a cane charge on their bottom after which they were locked up till the case could be heard in the morning. Iyer started when he saw the officer and heard the voice. Something was very familiar. Then it came back to him. Good lord it was P.C Hanuman of the Anjaneyar temple of another dark night years ago. Iyer introduced himself and reminded Hanuman of the night when he was recommended for promotion after catching the bootleggers years ago. He showed his sacred thread and offered to shave his beard to prove his identity.

 

Memory came to Hanuman of that fateful night when his career took off .He fell at Iyers feet and begged forgiveness and arranged for escort to take them home. Hanuman said to Iyer- “Ever since the Bombay attack we are on the alert for Muslim terrorists. Any body with a beard and looks life a Jehadi is suspect. We arrest, give a good beating on the buttocks, if they do not confess we strip them and examine their private parts. If circumcised he is put in the jail for further questioning. One other thing sir. If you are having a drink, do not bring bottles. They will be mistaken for petrol bombs. Sir, may I ask you for the bottle of Royal Salute. Such Amritam is difficult to come by and I would enjoy drinking it”. Iyer thanked the gods for the second escape from the police . He was fortunate that he was not circumcised but his happiness was short lived when learned that his son in law was. Iswaran told him it was a necessary precaution when living in the Middle East. Iyer shaved off his beard next morning and put caste mark on his forehead. Hanuman took the Royal Salute bottle to his room, shut and bolted the door, took out a glass tumbler and had a peg of the divine Amritam. He then locked up the bottle in the locker.

 

That is the present day Chennai Madras night life. You have almost everything to make the night pleasurable. It caters to all tastes from the bawdy to divine. There are hostess to amuse you like the devasais of old. You have super star hotels to cafe Amin and Rayars Mess .There are miles of seashore to enjoy nature and breathe natural ozone air or you have the sweaty stale discos to get crushed in pleasurable close contact dancing. The choice yours to take and you will not regret it. If nothing go to one of the seashores (not dressed like a jehadi) and you will get rejuvenated. 

 

The other night we landed in the Marina beach opposite Ice House. The city corporation has recently done up Marina and it is now a clean well lit place where there is something for every one. This is the place where meetings are held and on this moonlight night with cool breeze wafting in from the seashore you could hear in the background the waves breaking. There were three meetings going on, all of them trying to save the souls of their audience for their respective faiths. There was the Swamiji unraveling the teachings of Gita and its relevance to modern life. We munched some sundal and moved on to the next meeting and there was an evangelist belting away about their saviour  lord Jesus and even doing miracle cures. We moved on munching a samosa to hear an Imam talking on the prophet and the true way of life. There was a lot in common in things they said.  Now, where I ask you will you have this eclectic experience of the sublime on a moonlit seashore, which the city has managed to preserve. The city is growing taller and expanding but without the seashore the uniqueness of the city and its night life is lost.

Comments

[Kamini]

Good fun! I was wondering when the chocolate episode would show up. We are truly a world class city!!

[Ambika C]

Here's the latest action from Madras by Night -
Mistaken for client, cop stumbles on sex racket
Pimp Held; Driver Of Car, Three Girls Escape
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: A police sub-inspector in plainclothes, who was on the lookout for a crime suspect near Guindy, found a member of a prostitution racket in his net on Wednesday night.
Seeing a car parked by the roadside for a long time, SI Sivakumar of the Thirumangalam police station went to inquire with the driver, who opened the door and asked him to get in. There were three women in the car and the driver had mistaken the SI for a prospective customer. When the sub-inspector identified himself, the driver thought a conman was trying to blackmail him. The SI, however, managed to stop the vehicle in front of the Kotturpuram police station. While the driver and the girls escaped, a pimp who followed the vehicle was arrested. The police have taken the car and the two-wheeler into custody.
“Sivakumar was in plainclothes. He noticed a car parked for more than half-an-hour. When he approached the car, the driver lowered the window and asked him get in. The SI got in and saw three women inside,” a police officer said.
It turned out that the driver, Madan, mistook the SI for a customer and let him in. When Sivakumar identified himself as a sub-inspector, the driver didn’t believe him and threatened to beat him up if he was trying to play games. “Madan drove away with the sub-inspector and the girls, and informed his associate Sujeeth Kannan (26) about the “man who claims to be an SI.” Kannan asked him to drive towards Kotturpuram High Road, where he said their men would be present. Sensing danger, Sivakumar grabbed Madan by his neck. Madan stopped the car abruptly on the middle of the road. Before the SI could get out, he and the girls fled the scene. Sivakumar then informed the Kotturpuram police station. Meanwhile, Kannan, Madan’s associate, arrived at the place and Sivakumar nabbed him and handed him over to the Kotturpuram police.
The Kotturpuram police detained Kannan and recovered the Hyundai Santro and the two-wheeler. The case will be forwarded to the anti-vice squad for probe.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2010/05/07&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00300&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

[Ambika C]

PS...I thought The Hindu may not have carried that, hence the update!

[Kamini]

The Hindu would definitely have not published that - too juicy! In their depiction of Madras, nothing of this sorts happens!

[tetetetetete]

test
test
wafhlwaofhlohlhflhflh
http://flwfhlwehflh.com/

[Ness Pesikaka]

Parts 1 to 3 are very interesting and humourous.
Brought back old memories of Madras of 1964. - that's when we first came here.
Bombay(Mumbai)where I hail from is the Urbis Prima of India but Perin and I love this place and have settled here since 1972.

[Raja Ramakrishnan]

Thanks.The BYOB boys do not know what thy missed.
RR