ROOM OF HER OWN: A group of women chill out at a night club in Calcutta. Photo: Subhendu Chaki

It’s 7:30 in the evening. Nita Saha, import manager, at Sheraton Overseas Private Limited, a Calcutta-based import firm, is sitting at her office desk, thinking of calling it a day. She hasn’t had a particularly good day at work, and before going home, she wants to sit somewhere on her own, and think over things, maybe over a cigarette and a glass of beer.

An hour or so later, she is at ShiSha, the Hookah Bar, the night club at Grain of Salt Restaurant on Camac Street, ordering a Kingfisher and a hookah. “Even a year ago, I couldn’t dream of this luxury,” she says, reclining on a low, cushioned couch, in a dimly-lit, cosy corner of the room, blowing a ring of strawberry flavoured smoke out of the corner of her pink-lipsticked mouth.

“Earlier, it was unthinkable for me, as a single woman, to sit around in a bar and smoke and drink,” adds Saha. But not so anymore. Suddenly there seems to be a mad rush to cater to the needs of women who want to go out on their own. Not just in Calcutta, but in other major cities across the country.

A couple of months ago the F Bar & Lounge, at Le Meridien Hotel in Bangalore, introduced the concept of a free ladies’ night every Wednesday. A board placed outside the lounge bar reads, “Men can join the party, but let them have no illusions. Women rule here”. Which means, among other things, women get to enter the bar free of cost, while men shell out Rs 500 each. Also women are served free drinks — the best champagne, wine and cocktails.

There, on weekends you can catch Namarata and her girlfriends partying till the early hours of the morning. And while she jives to Britney Spears or whatever else that is playing, she doesn’t really care whether her steps match the music. And for a while she says goodbye to her worries and wifely duties, choosing to forget that she is 35, has a son and works with a top-notch IT firm. “I forget about packing my son’s lunch box or worrying whether the maid will show up or if I’ll get late for work,” she says.

In Delhi, ITC Maurya Sheraton’s Irish pub, Dublin, is launching a special ‘ladies night out’ every Thursday. “On this day, we give complimentary entry to all the ladies who come in,” says Stuti Mishra,” PRO, Maurya Sheraton, “as well as a ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ offer on all beverages”.

But why this sudden mad scramble to please ladies with this sop and that when not so long ago many bars or pubs didn’t so much as allow a woman to order drinks, unless she was accompanied by a male. Because, quite simply, there is a rising demand for such places. Sociologists link this demand to women’s sense of emancipation. “Education and exposure to the outside world has given today’s women — especially upper and middle class urban women — a taste of independence. They are eager to exchange ideas and don’t always necessarily enjoy being inside the house, looking after their husband and children. Unfortunately there is a gap between the level of mental freedom that they have achieved with the ground reality. It is as if they have won the right to work, but not to play,” says Prasanta Roy, former head of sociology at Presidency College, Calcutta.

And so, sadly, women still don’t feel free enough to do their stuff, wherever they want to and whatever it is. Says Saha, “Unlike men, women are still not made to feel comfortable if they light up in a public place or if they sit alone with a glass of beer in a pub. You are either stared at or commented on and sometimes even propositioned. You never really feel left alone. In fact, at times you feel downright threatened.”

Other women too admit to feeling similarly intimidated and even humiliated for daring to publicly display their right to do what they want. A 31-year-old journalist, waiting in a line to buy alcohol, narrates the following incident: “There were gasps and then I heard a resounding slap of a forehead and some male voice sniggering, “Hai re, eshobo dekhtey holo jiboney! (Alas, I had to suffer this too?)”.

Another woman, an ad agency executive, remembers a goodly, but extremely panicked gentleman, asking her to move to the front of the line leading to the liquor counter, so that she could finish the ignoble business at hand as quickly as possible. And a 42-year-old woman, who works in a publishing house, had a stone thrown at her, while she was standing outside her office, indulging in perhaps what is considered the biggest taboo of them all — smoking.

The hotel and restaurant industry has been quick to cash in on the demand, arising out of this need for an enclosure where women can temporarily exercise their rights to do what they want.

According to Sovan Mukherjee, assistant manager, Food and Beverages, ShiSha Hookah Bar, “In the last few years we noticed that more and more women are preferring to go out on their own, either totally alone, or more commonly, in small all-women groups”. And this coupled with the fact that they have more spending power makes them the perfect target group for a marketing offensive. One year ago the restaurant used to have one night — each Thursday — dedicated to women. They called it ladies’ night and men, though not overtly discouraged, where not really welcome either. According to Mukherjee, “It was noticed during this time that Calcutta’s women really needed such a place. They came alone or in groups, just to relax or talk or just think about things”.

Therefore the management decided to extend the women’s night concept to everyday of the week. “Since there was such a demand,” he explains, “it didn’t really make sense for this space to be limited to just one day of the week.” Though the space is not out of bounds for men, stags are not permitted, especially on certain nights of the week. The idea is to create a non-threatening environment, where women can sit alone, if they want to smoke, drink, listen to music or dance without being badgered or harassed in any way.

The F Bar & Lounge in Bangalore too is careful to keep the music tuned to women’s tastes, playing what they demand and even organising special entertainment programmes. A show by a male stripper recently “drew whistles and appreciative hoots from the women gathered,” says Richard D’costa, manager at the F Bar.

That these ladies nights are less about women’s empowerment and more about marketing is evident from the fact that many are not exploring the idea precisely because it is not economically viable. Athena Bar in Mumbai, for instance, does not allow ‘free entry’ to women. They do however cash in on certain occasions like Women’s Day or Mother’s Day, when they organise “win a diamond” competitions and wine-tasting evenings.

And questions arise. Is this then a celebration of women’s emancipation — a few free drinks and free entry — for a limited period of time and in a limited space, where reality stands temporarily suspended? And while freedom is sold like a commodity in the darkness of ladies’ nights, in the harsh light of day inhibitions still lurk.

Within the confines of these bars, pubs, discos and night clubs are women made to feel that you’ve come a long way. But only when you step out do you realise that you still have a long way to go, baby.