And so, the year ends not with a whimper but with former porn star and current Bollywood diva Sunny Leone performing live at The Lalit in the capital, showing that those who were previously employed in the adult entertainment industry can indeed be rehabilitated in mainstream culture. Her debut performance in a thriller film might not have been family fare — apparently even voyeurs were disappointed because her male co-star ended up revealing more skin than her. Who’ll then make up the audience for her performance on New Year’s eve, as she gears up for her reprisal as an item girl? Is the attraction for the highly billed party to be Leone or, as some suggest, the “unlimited food and liquor packages”?
Curtains 2012 isn’t feeling particularly celebratory, even though New Delhi now has more partying places than ever before. But the revellers’ numbers can hardly climb any higher than they’ve been at Anidra and Skooter these past weekends (where, waiting to get in can be numbing in the cold without a tot or two, which the spoilsport cops are raining on with their breathanalysers at every corner — not sparing even the silver-maned among the citizenry). More authoritarianly, they’ve taken to switching off the music past 12.30 p.m., leaving party-goers with no place to turn to past the Cinderella hour, which is when parties in the city usually pick up pace anyway.
Time was when we would head out at 10.30 p.m. to be told we were too darn early – certainly being among the earliest to arrive at a Lap or a Keya – and it’s no more unusual to now see the children still getting dressed post 11 p.m. when they’re planning a night out, so a 12.30 p.m. curfew does appear a killjoy. Any wonder the most New Year’s parties I know the people are signing up for are being held at farmhouses, where the writ of the police extends but poorly. Given the NCR’s security environment, it might not be desirable but it certainly beats mwah-mwahing the New Year’s with champagne and retiring immediately after to bed with a hot-water bag.
We might be succumbing to the blues but you can be sure that Delhi will find a way to party — which could be one reason we’ve happily accepted an invitation to do nothing more adventurous than sit by a fireside over gossip and home food. I anticipate heading home around the time the children intend to be heading out, elaborate plans and fights over which have been unfortunately breaking out over the dining table. Both want the driver’s services on the night in question, and there hasn’t been a resolution yet over who’s the victor. Neither wants to be spotted in the same club as the other, and much detective work has gone into unearthing where each is headed — so far at least Sunny Leone isn’t part of that schedule, but who knows if that changes closer to date.
As 2012 gives way to 2013, and people jam networks to send drunken New Year’s wishes to loved ones, I anticipate sitting glued to the phone to try and find out where the kids are partying, whether they’re safe, that they’re on something other than a liquid diet, that the fog isn’t too thick to drive, that the chauffeur hasn’t gone off to sleep at the wheel — not that different from most weekends at present. So, I hope you’ll excuse me if I sleep through New Year’s Day. As for Sunny Leone, my wife suggests a rain check — so, till next time, darling?
