Why we need more, better, safer clubs

From your grandparents' zamaana, clubs - or, as they would call them in their days, nightclubs - are seen as disreputable places, where 'unseemly' behaviour quickly morphs into illegal behaviour. But that zamaana has gone, even as some problems associated with clubbing in India haven't. For starters, they are woefully few of them. For another, they need a reputational lift that can happen only when more of us - and not the shady and spoilt brat variety - become the face of club clientele. Beyond overpriced rooftop lounges that serve 'fusion naan' on slate plates, young PLUs collectively tuck in by 10.30 p.m., like obedient students prepping for the UPSC. We need nightclubs. Real ones. Ones where you can express your love for dancing and chilling out without being mistaken for a dealer.

Comfy and safe partying isn't a moral failure. It's community therapy. A well-lit, air-conditioned dance floor is a more effective instrument of happy life than watching episodes of Karan Johar's The Traitors at home. Let the youth unhinge, unlearn and undo their weekday personas under strobe lights. So, dear municipalities, build fewer statues and roadside shrines, and more soundproof walls. We don't need another convention centre. We need places where people can wear sunglasses indoors at night and feel alive. For a society to boom, it needs more bass.