Chp 85. A "new" discotheque called "Poison"

Déjà vu of good ol Bangalore.

It’s 3 in the morning here in Mumbai. Sunday morning. We just came back from a Disc. We were having an awesome time there, when the DJ suddenly stopped the music, announced on the mike that the cops were there, and with that, everything stopped.

Just like Bangalore!

Ah!

The only reason why I stopped clubbing while I was at Bangalore was because of the 11:30pm diktat declared by the cops (and cultural police). So we shifted to rave parties conducted on the outskirt of Bangalore city. But driving all the way back to the city early in the morning completely exhausted from the dance floor grinding and sleepy like hell could definitely make someone think twice about partying again.

So after moving to Mumbai, I expected a different scenario. After all, one of the most memorable parties I ever had was at Avalon, Bawa International, which went on till 5 in the morning.

Anyway, after being in Mumbai for nearly two months now, I’ve been to only drinking Pubs and dancing Pubs (As my friend P would elegantly put it, there’s a big difference between “drinking Pubs” and “dancing Pubs” . According to him, girls at “dancing Pubs” are genuinely hot, while girls at “drinking Pubs” become hot only after a couple of drinks. Lolz.)

Finally, last night, we went to a night club. The place was called “Poison”, owned by DJ Aqeel and Dilip Joshi, the same disc that Sanjay Dutt was rumoured to be interested in buying, which was closed down due to licensing problems. It recently reopened, just a couple of weeks ago. We called up the Management in advance to ask if collar-less tee-shirts were allowed. They said yes.

( Ps. Never make the mistake of going blindly to a particular night-club for the first time, wearing tees, even if it is a really expensive designer T-shirt, because many of these Clubs have a very strict dress code. Happened to me once in Cal. Went to CCFC, and “T” and I were wearing tee shirts. They didn’t let us in because of that. And because of the two of us, the rest of the gang, all 10 of us, had to forgo the party plan)

There were 7 of us last night. Three couples and a lone stag. Yes, that was me. The stag. Anyway, I didn’t mind being the stag. Nothing new in my department .

The place “Poison” was amazing. Situated at Bandra, waterfield road, it was 1000 bucks per stag and 1500 per couple, complete cover charge! We actually had to stand in a long queue to get in, just like those night clubs you see at “Sex and the city”. Lots of bouncers with headsets, and the women everywhere were dead on hot. (Ps. Guys! Don’t wear a black shirt - black pants combination to this place unless you want to me mistaken as a bouncer or a waiter).

The actual place was at the basement. As the management stamped a seal on our hands, an usher lead us down a long spiral neon lights decorated staircase. The dance floor was huge. Lots of fancy disco lights and smoke special effects. As I walked around the place, my masculine mind made a quick involuntary survey: Male to female ratio, 1:2. Cool!

As all of us moved from one place to the other, “warming up”, I was disappointed though. There were no UV lights . An awesome place like this, especially since it was an “underground” club, had no UV lights. To me, UV lights really give that underground effect and theme. Why am I making such a big fuss about UV lights? Because last night, I finally got to put on my “Brylcream UV Gel” I applied the gel on the tip of my spikey hair and wanted to know how it would look under UV lights. I even wore my white tee-shirt (for more UV effect) with a single word “MIZO” displayed at the back . But alas, no such UV…

But later, our group went to the more private section of the Club and never stepped out from there again throughout the rest of the night. The music playing on the main dance floor was mainly Bollywood and commercial, which definitely did not strike a chord with me.

At the private section, there was a different DJ. He played only Hiphop. The sound system in that enclosure was equally amazing. There I was “leaning back” to Terror Squad and “Shaking that” to Eminem and Nate Dogg. Some of the ladies made sure their “Hips don’t lie” to Shakira, and boy that was not a metaphor I just used. I “rompe rompe” to Daddy Yankee while clutching my fourth or fifth pint of beer.

And then at 1am, the DJ suddenly switched the music from Hiphop to House. So after that, I just sat down, quite tipsy from the drinks and still enjoying the night. I mean, I love dancing to Hiphop, but when it comes to Trance and House, I enjoy more just sitting down on the comfortable “vibrating” sofa and moving my body to the rhythm. Space Buddha and Royal Gigolos don’t exactly see an eye to eye with my dancing shoes .

After sometime, I thought, what the heck, it’s been such a long time since I partied like this. So I got up, went to the dance floor and moved my chinky white ass to the beat of Global Deejays and Avancada. At around 2am, the music suddenly stopped. DJ announced on the mike that the cops were there and that everything must close immediately. Just like that. Atleast in Bangalore we used to get a warning, and then the DJ played the last song. Here, everything just abruptly ended . Bummer…

There were indeed a lot of F words from the crowd. But the DJ just smiled, being used to this kind of reception from an angry frustrated inebriate crowd, and from then onwards, it was just lights everywhere. Bright white lights. Suddenly you could see each other’s faces clearly. They smiled. I smiled back. Made an Internationally recognized gesture with my hands and lips that meant “great dance, you” and then walked back to my table, making sure they could read the “MIZO” written at the back of my tee shirt .

Back at our table, all of us were trying to use up our remaining coupons. We didn’t care what drinks we got, we just wanted to finish the damn coupons. My friends told me the place usually close down around 4-5’ish, so I was earnestly trying my best to plan out the rate at which I was spending my coupons. But when they suddenly announced that they had to close at 2am, I still had a freaking 300 bucks worth of coupon left. S had 650, D had 700 and J had 500 (Remember these guys had 1.5G worth of coupon each while I had 1G). I went to the Bar with the total 2150 bucks worth of coupon and told the bar tender to give me anything for that amount. Lolz. Now that is something I won’t be saying again in a very very long time . Damn…

I don’t even remember what the drinks I bought back to our table were. All of them were “parceled” i.e. drinks served in paper cups so that we could carry them outside as it was closing time. The place outside the Club was swarming with party people. Black was clearly the main colour theme most of the Ladies were wearing. There were definitely more than 400 people that night. We formed a “human train” as we walked outside through the crowd as it was very easy to get lost in that sea. Finally we all hugged each other goodnight and went our respective ways.

Thinking back now, I really did have an amazing time at “Poison”. Too bad it had to close down early, but I think it was definitely worth the monetary value (and trouble of applying UV gel carefully on the tip of my spikes even though that did not pay off ).

Inspite of the occasional floods and other disasters/tragedies that are prone to the city, here’s to Mumbai’s high spirit of a great night life. Cheers.

- Mizo(hic!)an

Ps: For all the party goers out there who likes to search the Net first to read about the review of a particular place they are planning to go to, feel free to use my post as a review for “Poison”, but I must warn you that 70% of the time, I was inside the Hiphop/House enclosure and have nothing much to say about the main dance-floor section outside. My ratings to that particular Hiphop section: 4.5 4.0 / 5.0 (There weren’t that much of a disco light effect inside compared to outside, and the floor was not slippery at all, hence I couldn’t do my occasional moon-walks after suddenly getting carried away with the music ). And oh, the cost of a pint of beer: Rs.150/- which is ok I guess.

Cheers again.