Reform in the parties!

SOCIETY

I have been reading about New Year superstitions and one that is commonly held across cultures is that you begin the year as you end it "" and that the entire year follows the note on which you begin it.

If that made sense, you will understand why I am feeling rather hopeful about 2008 in a way I wouldn't have had I focussed solely on, say, Narendra Modi winning in Gujarat or the Blueline service claiming its hundred and seventeenth or so victim in 2007. Instead, my hopes are based on matters infinitely more frivolous; in fact, solely on the fact that I have, finally, been attending year-end parties that are entertaining.

The quintessential Dilli party has always frightened me. I could trace that fear back to the first time I attended one (as distinct ones hosted by kin or friends) many years ago, fresh from Lucknow "socials", as they were called in school, a different world altogether.

I remember dashing into the restroom of the hotel where this particular party was being hosted and staying put for at least a half-hour just to get over the ritual of mwah-mwah-look over the shoulder-attempt stilted conversation-more mwah mwah-grab a drink that I saw being repeated till I went bleary eyed! That has remained, more or less, the order till this day.

Mumbai parties, on the other hand, can be much more fun. For one, people begin conversations with "what do you do?" not "where do you stay?" an opener, which, you will agree, can lead to a dead end very fast if you do reside on the wrong side of the river, or in the wrong suburb. Then there is the matter of the dresscode. If you don't look as if you were a) at a wedding, b) on Bollywood sets, c) at a fashion show (to walk the ramp), you are immediately identified as a card-carrying member of the fourth estate, an identity that can be coveted but not always necessary.

In Mumbai and Bangalore, on the other hand, I have always envied the freedom with which the jeans-tee clad can swagger into a pub/club. The fact that they do have legit pubs/clubs is greater cause for envy even if the Hard Rock Cafe does not always play the best music. Besides which the north Indian conditioning of not laying out dinner till well past the Cinderella hour, only after the last drop of "Scotch" has been exhausted, can be quite trying.

So, why am I hopeful this year-end? Well, genuinely fun evenings may be finally here. This Christmas, for instance, I attended that great Delhi rarity "" a cocktails-only evening which was just that. People had their two drinks, pecked on kebabs and were home by10 pm. Boring? Naah. Civilised. A second party that same week left me even happier.

For a change people conversed and not with their cellphones. And there was the kind of goodwill that only good wine can bring. We pondered over why only Arabic and Chinese scripts lend themselves to calligraphy and how indeed would Pappa John's pizza fare in the Islamic world. "Chacha jaan pizza!"

From the sublime to the ridiculous but certainly refreshing.

(anoothi.vishal@bsmail.in)