Put on your dancing shoes

The opening up of such a large number of discos in the city, almost all new restaurants having a dance floor to adorn their ambience and managers encouraging a dance or two when you are out for a meal is a clear indication that this `dance culture’ is not restricted to the young.

It was a fantastic and touching sight to witness women and men with grey dancing their blues away at a recent rain dance held at Fun City. Pure fun and entertainment is what all are looking for after a back breaking day.

But what has changed the attitude of the city crowd? Is it the satellite television, new thoughts or ideas or finally not linking these places with the age old idea about them being `dens of evil’?

We talked to the young and the old about their `wild times’.

According to Sushma, mother of a 19 year old, “I was apprehensive about Divya (her daughter) going for these late night dance parties and recently trying out every new disco in town. And this was not because I did not trust her, or I was being over protective. It was just the `not so good’ reputation these places had.”

But I and my husband were persuaded by Divya to come to Las Vegas on our wedding anniversary. Of course we were apprehensive, but I’m so glad that we took the risk. We had a time of our life and danced like crazy.”

“Though I could not imitate half of the steps these youngsters did. But I followed the 60’s and 70’s trend and we had a great time. But the one who benefitted the most was our daughter. We had set notions which were broken. The ultimate aim is to relax and unburden yourself. And getting together and dancing is definitely a great idea to do so.”

According to Vikas a first year college student, whose Saturday nights are religiously spent at any one of the dancing joints, “my mother was very comfortable with the idea of my going out, but would always complain about not having been to a disco, or not even seeing one. So one day I decided to let her taste the `forbidden fruit’. It was absolutely cute to see her dancing, though she was conscious and reserved. But she admits having a great time. The only complain she had was the music being too loud for anyone to speak.”

There were or still are many reasons for people being not very comfortable with the idea of these dance parties and discos which are not entirely baseless. Sudhir, father of a college going girl said “there are so many untasteful incidents being reported very often form these places. The immediate concern is of the security and the well being of your child, a situation on which nobody will compromise.

Chandigarh is a place which is still not used to the culture of a night life. And the people who visit these are also not. It is an entirely different scene in metros where I was a frequent goer myself. The security and other arrangements are taken care of. The first thing that should be done here is to ban liquor in the discos and forbid entry of single males in the discos. That will definitely pave the way for some clean, good and real fun..”