Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
Hic, hic HURRAY!
|
Reckless driving after downing a few, harassing women, and often killing themselves and others. Welcome to Pub City
|
YOU MAY not believe it but the sale of liquor has actually come down in Pub City and many watering holes are shutting down early, according to those in the trade. But, young revellers, struck by Saturday Night Fever seem out to prove the pundits wrong.
With drinking becoming very much a part of social life and the taboo that existed once gone now, many young men and women are making a beeline to the pubs that dot Bangalore, especially on weekends. The laidback, conservative local culture that set apart Bangalore from other metros, has disappeared for good.
Revelry apart, the boozing binge has acquired dangerous proportions with high-spirited youth tearing around town on their vehicles, misbehaving with women on the road and posing a danger to other drivers as well as pedestrians. Some even get aggressive with traffic policemen who pull them up for drunken driving.
Reckless driving, under alcoholic stupor, has claimed quite a few young lives in recent months and left many more badly injured. According to doctors at NIMHANS, many of the fatal and non-fatal accidents are due to drunken driving. Significantly, police records show a marginal increase in road accidents on weekends.
To give them due credit, the city police have initiated some measures to check drunken driving. The results have not been satisfactory. Young drivers don't take warnings seriously and the police do not possess enough equipment like breathalysers to carry out a concerted drive.
A new dimension has been added with the opening of a large number of clubs and resorts on the outskirts of the city. Drunken driving, once confined to downtown Bangalore, is now common in the outer suburbs.
Young men, who gather in groups (safety in numbers?) in front of pubs after downing a few, are often seen making lewd comments on women passing by. "When an all-girl group goes to a pub, men stalk us and even ask us to accompany them, as if we have nothing better to do!" says an indignant Mini who occasionally goes to pubs with her friends.
For Gautam and his pals, women who come to pubs are "easy game". "It's only good-natured teasing and most take it in their stride," he says defensively. However, the expletives often used on women are anything but good-natured.
Some pubs and restaurants have a dance floor of sorts on weekends and here is where for many young men, the "action" starts. There are many instances when drunken young men have physically assaulted women on the dance floor, leading to brawls. However, Vinay, a young computer professionals, disagrees: "The increase in the number of women visiting pubs has encouraged these young men to frequent such places and they think they can have fun with women who are ready to have fun." However, it's not `fun'ny when drunken drivers harass women drivers late in the night.
The usual stunt is to keep overtaking and then driving close to the women drivers, making aggressive comments all the while. Unnerving women drivers seems to be their idea of having fun.
K.V. SUBRAMANYA
K. SATYAMURTY
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
