A table for junior

Appeasing children and by proxy,their parents is the latest stunt in the marketing book. In a country with a growing number of adults in their 20s and 30s,babies are the expressway to parents hearts and to their wallets. And enterprises are looking to climb the baby-wagon in ever-new ways. Sally Barnes,regional development executive at Gloria Jean’s Coffees International,says the Australian chain,which has 17 outlets across India and plans to double stores in the coming year,will launch a minicino steamed milk with a flavour syrup for children. While the free babycino is helping them test waters,the minicino will be chargeable.

At the Qube,an all-day dining restaurant at The Leela Palace,Delhi,the childrens special menu offers dishes named after cartoons,like Sponge Bob (eggs to order with smiley potatoes),Bumblebee (selection of cereals),Kung Fu Panda (whole grain roll,turkey ham),Little Mermaid (batter-fried fish sticks with potatoes),Yu-gi-oh (nut brownies) and Princess Fiona (chicken fingers with honey mustard sauce). Chef Glenn B Eastman,executive chef,says families have been lapping up the new dishes,all of them lightly spiced and made with less oil.

Having a menu for children with small portions makes sense,says Manpreet Saini,managing director,Underdoggs Sports Bar and Grill,Ambience Mall,Vasant Kunj,Delhi,which has 10 items on the menu for children. With a sports bar concept spread across 9,000 sq ft,Underdoggs gets around 100 children over the weekend. Children can play table tennis,pool,carrom and board games like Taboo and Monopoly. Besides,we have Microsoft Kinect,PlayStation and Nintendo Wii consoles,which attract a lot of parents with children, says Saini.

Going beyond childrens menus and play areas,the owners of The Tasty Tangles and Sancho in Mumbai organise special tours of their restaurants for children between six and nine years of age. For Rs 500 per head,the tour takes the children to the kitchen,where they are shown equipment and ingredients,and given a cooking demo of four items on the menu.

Its not just food. At Kenko spa in Garuda Mall in central Bangalore,dim lights and soothing aromatic candles set the stage for pampering of the sort only adults were entitled to until recently. On a Saturday morning,10-year-old Viren is here for a fish spa session (a 20-minute fish spa session costs Rs 397) along with his mother Naina Goklaney. With the ease of a habitué,he slips off his shoes,washes his feet and plunges them into one of several tanks in a room at the back. In an instant,dozens of tiny fish called garra rufa or doctor fish,they are considered beneficial due to their quality of nibbling away dead skin crowd around his feet and ankles,causing a tickling sensation that he says is fun and relaxing. The first time I tried it,I was a bit scared. But Ive grown to enjoy it, he says. Naina herself finds the treatment a little creepy,but insists that it helps her son unwind after a busy week. In todays world,children are under a lot of stress. They need relaxation as much as we do, says Naina,whose husband runs a jewellery business. The Goklaneys,including Virens brother Sharan,12,visit Kenko once a week for reflexology massages and fish spa treatments.

Kenko,a Southeast Asian wellness brand that was launched in Bangalore two years ago,now has two outlets in the city,both of which are drawing a growing crowd of spa-happy tiny tots. Fifteen per cent of our customers are children between three and 13 years of age, says Vandana Sood Virwani,Kenkos promoter in India. Besides conducting free fish spa carnivals for children once a year and offering family reflexology packages,Kenko also recommends its ear candling therapy for children. An aromatic candle is lit on one end while the smoke from it is let into the ear from the other end,with the therapist massaging the area around the ears and shoulders all along. This,says Virwani,relieves exam stress and improves memory.

Indeed,the demand for child-friendly food and leisure activities isnt lost on the hospitality industry. The Leonia Holistic Destination in Hyderabad,for one,has an exclusive childrens spa furnished in red and yellow,with services ranging from massages for newborn babies to packages for pre-teenagers. One such package,Bookworm,focuses on the head and neck; another,Backpack,targets the back,arms and shoulders. These,and a game zone equipped with the best gear Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360,among others are designed to keep children happy as clams while parents enjoy the hotels chic comforts. Its a trend that is here to stay,says Harini Nagappa,a 34-year-old mother of two. When we had our first child four years ago,life suddenly changed. We couldnt dine out in peace,we couldnt even shop without the kids constantly nagging us. Now,malls,restaurants and hotels are building play areas for children so that parents can get some quality leisure time for themselves, says the software engineer from Austin Town,Bangalore.

If some of the newer malls in Delhi and Mumbai offer parents the utility of nappy-changing rooms,most shopping malls today come with a play area for children. R-City Mall in Ghatkopar,Mumbai,for instance,has a popular play area called Cool Kids,where for Rs 50 an hour,children between two and six years of age are kept busy with car games,blocks,quizzes and other toys.

At La Brasserie,the breakfast lounge at Le Meridian,Pune,yet another brand of baby management is evident. Here,Puneet Sharma,a 34-year-old investment banker,enjoys breakfast with his wife Rahina,as their four-year-old son is comfortably seated on a high chair next to their table. The hotel has trained a small army of women to babysit children a service that comes at a charge of Rs 300-400 per hour. At lunch time,tattoo artists and children-centric programmes have become a regular affair,says Nader Shaikh,executive chef at the restaurant. What we have noticed is that families feel comfortable when the children are enjoying themselves. So I make sure that there is either a chocolate fountain or a kids corner. We also have special crockery with cartoons on it for children, he says.

A favourite lunch venue among young parents in Bangalore is Claytopia,a concept clay painting studio cum bistro in Indira Nagar. On walls painted white,butterfly magnets,tiles and painted plates in rainbow colours stand out like whimsical murals. Shelves loaded with clay figures magnets,cups,animals,spoons,Buddhas,plates adorn the small studio with blue Mediterranean shutters. Outside,in a covered courtyard,fashionable collegiates sip cappuccinos and nibble on cheese-laden fries. We actually began as a clay painting studio where people could choose a pre-moulded figure and paint it,then leave it for 10 days with us to bake and cool. We added the restaurant about two years ago. As a result,65 per cent of our customers are now adults a lot of them parents who bring their children with them, says Kavitha Menon Nambiar,who runs Claytopia with her partner Fathima.

At a sun-drenched table outside,Nandini Pande,a German language translator and a first-timer at Claytopia with her seven-year-old daughter Ishi,is painting a ladle in purple and red. Her daughter,in a Hannah Montana T-shirt,is applying dainty touches of predictable pink to a heart-shaped magnet. Its an interesting concept. We are going to paint some more and then order lunch, Pande says. Rahul Balagopal,a regular who brings his family to Claytopia twice a month,says he initially came for the painting and has now become a fan of the food. The paint-while-you-eat concept really works,both for the adult and the child. If it was just a play area,it would be boring for parents. But since the food is good,especially the lamb burger and the spicy chicken burger,you dont mind coming every now and then, he says.

Not just restaurants,even premium stores meant for adults are launching products and services aimed at children. In a beautiful white bungalow in Nungambakkam,Chennai,the home of Rasvihar,a line of exclusive handcrafted jewellery,tiny gold jhumkas lavished with diamonds and emeralds glitter under yellow lights. A small diamond-studded pair is priced at Rs 75,000; a gold waist chain at Rs 6.2 lakh. The line,called Babyrasa,is gaining in popularity among Indians and NRIs alike,says S Ahalya,the designer behind Rasvihar. A lady had come recently to buy jewellery for herself. Her daughter,who must have been less than 10,liked a few pieces from the Babyrasa line,and made her mother buy them for her, she says,adding that children as young as five like to choose their own jewellery.

Another jewellery line for children in Pune,called Ashirwad,was launched by PN Gadgil Jewellers this February to involve kids in the shopping process. Says Sourabh Gadgil,partner,PNG,We have a lot of variety for infants and kids. We are trying to make them a part of the shopping experience and of course this makes choosing gifts for kids easy. Ranging from gold chains to finger rings,cartoon pendants,bangles and gold thalis,the child-oriented line has products weighing between one gram and 50 grams and costing Rs 2,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh.

As Nagappa says,If its good enough for my child,its good enough for me.

With inputs from Sharon Fernandes,Afsha Khan and Amrita Jain