Life After Dark

Café Beat – for Café Coffee Day

Life After Dark
Midnight drives, all-night parties, gate crashing, call centre execs will do anything for fun as long as there’s no sun.

‘Nightlife’ has acquired to a whole new meaning in the last five years. And no, we are not talking only about clubbing zones. We mean life begins at night for Gen X. Not too long ago, graduates fresh out of college would scrimp to be able to afford chai and buttered buns. Partying was out of the question for many, with pubs, bars and clubs seeming like exorbitant, inaccessible spaces. At the most, one could make a trip to one of these watering holes and restaurants at the beginning of each month when the pay cheque had been cashed.
Not anymore. Youngsters today earn as much as their parents did after slogging away for ten years or more. The BPO boom has created a new breed of young adults who are re-defining the concept of consumerism. Loaded with cash and confidence, equipped with the latest gizmos, wearing designer clothes; these liberal spenders believe in having a good time. Listen up to what they have to say.

What’s the story, morning glory?
Snehal, 22 works with Hutchison 3G, where her shift ends at 3.30am. Instead of waiting for her pick-up car that goes through many a detour-ridden street before dropping her off, her boyfriend picks her up. He works at e-Serve located in the same campus, Mindspace in Malad.
“We go for a long drive on empty roads on the early morning. Its great fun…the only other people on the roads are the milk-vans and newspaper vendors. We even get to catch up with our friends. So its just like college – attend classes and then bogey till sunrise.” Parents have had to do their share of adjusting. Snehal’s parents don’t object to her lifestyle “because they know my friends from college days and it’s the same lot,” she says.
Sleep is a luxury but these problem-solvers have learnt to deal with that, too. Snehal says that lack of sleep is easily manageable. “I barely used to sleep for five hours while I was studying during the final year of college. So I can handle it. Moreover, on days of comp-offs, I sleep all day and make up for that sleep-deprivation.

And now over to the boyfriend…
Rahul is 24 and has a back-end job, which means his hours are not too crazy. “It’s not really the graveyard shift. I finish work at 10.30 and then go our partying with my friends,” he says.
He doesn’t like hanging out with his colleagues. “They are big-time junkies. Once out of work, all they want to do is smoke up while guzzling down beers…that too in the office compound! Earlier, I found it exciting, but then found it was too risky. If we had got caught, all that hard work I put into climbing up the corporate ladder would have gone down the drain.”
He prefers to crash out at the closest beach resort or land up at a friend’s farmhouse. “We drive off on Friday night, and come home on Sunday morning. That’s the only day I actually meet my parents.”
His parents have got used to his way of life. “Before I started working at e-Serve, I used to party till the wee hours of the morning. So it’s nothing new for them,” Rahul says.

Cool? Uncool?
“Sometimes when I finish early (10 pm), we go to Slice of Lime to drink or Pop Tates. Otherwise nothing else except Café Coffee Day is open till that late. There is a table-tennis table and a music zone at 3G. So we mostly hang around the cafeteria, waiting for the pick-up car,” says Gautam, another Hutchison 3G employee.
He doesn’t find the time to go meet his friends because of his busy schedule and the Mumbai distances. Weekends are when he catches up with his buddies. On weekdays, he prefers to go home and sleep. “I know its kinda uncool to say this, but when you are working, its mighty tiring.” He speaks of the adverse effects of working at call-centres, “You need to be prompt in solutions and the mind needs to be alert for that. It’s not all that hunky-dory as most people think.”
Sometimes, he lets himself go, but with a pinch of regret. “There are days when I get tempted and go out partying on work days. It’s sheer hell, man! Endless cups of coffee and smoking are the only way to survive the nasty hangover and sleepiness. So, I generally avoid that.”

Changing Lanes
Fiona used to work with Jet Airways till she joined IBM in November last year. This 23-year old has shift changes very often which means every few weeks she has different hours and a new bunch of workmates. But that still hasn’t deterred her from partying. “In fact, I have made many more friends. We go to restaurants or coffee shops after work. On weekends too I prefer catching on movies and hanging out with this bunch of new friends from work.”

The Commuters
Then there are those who deal with long commutes, making their hours even longer. Like Sanjay, who works at HSBC and handles the lost-card complaints in the UK – a very routine and somewhat dull operational job. He must be doing something exciting after work to maintain the balance, right? But he says, “Far from it! I stay one hour away from office. If I don’t get the pick-up car, all hell breaks lose.” So he goes home and watches TV until he falls asleep. He doesn’t hang out that much with his colleagues, except “for the regular doses of coffee in the cafeteria.” He waits for the weekend to arrive to catch up with his friends.

Party Poop
Atul works with Transworks and doesn’t do much merry-making either. “My girl-friend doesn’t let me party.” Poor chap! “I finish work at 1 am but my girlfriend (who doesn’t work in a call-centre) doesn’t like my colleagues. They go out drinking every night.” Recently, one of his workmates got thrown out of the office. “He would come to work with a groggy hangover every morning. And as a trainer, that wasn’t making a very good impression.”
So does that mean he spends all his free time with his girlfriend? “No,” he is quick to retort. “I still go out with my colleagues. We have sleepover parties over the weekend. Our team leader/ manager regularly takes us out to resorts where my girlfriend can’t join us (phew!), so we guzzle all we want.”

Now isn’t it good to know that the 'work hard, party hard' motif isn’t confined to New Yorkers? Welcome to the global nightlife village.