The once staid city has become a new party zone.

By Rohit Parihar

Want to party? Looking for some fun? Or just need to chill out? The alternatives are infinite, especially if you're headed towards Chandigarh. Chandigarh? Whoa. Isn't that where plump Punjabi ladies meet over high tea to discuss Pinkie's matrimonial prospects? Where jovial men in safari suits strike business deals over tandoori chicken and Patialas?You've got to be kidding. Chandigarh is where it's all happening. And here's how:

• The city's second disco, Cloud Nine (entry: Rs 100 per couple on Saturdays) opened a few months ago. Two more are scheduled to open this year.
• July saw the opening of a new recreation centre with 26 video games that cost Rs 1 crore to set up. Already, Time Out draws over 1,000 visitors a day.
• In October, Guranchal Sethi, a young dj, plans to hold the city's first "beachwear" theme party. Those who haven't been invited are gnashing their teeth in frustration.
• Indus Valley, a country club, has come up on the city's periphery. It boasts of a dance floor and even a mini beach, where women hang out in swimsuits and shorts.
• Pub sales have shot up by 15 per cent, restaurants' by 20, according to Sanjeev Verma, who owns Khyber restaurant and the Wild West Pub.
• Last month saw two "rain dance" parties, with sprinklers doing the job of truant monsoon clouds.

Things sure are changing here. Once this town was regarded as a pensioner's town: it was pretty, well-planned but b-o-r-i-n-g. Early attempts to liven things up flopped when the first dance clubs opened in the swinging '60s only to shut down due to lack of business. Ditto for video-game parlours which tried to make an impact in the '80s. By then, terrorism in Punjab had made it decidedly unsafe to party and Le Corbusier's city would go to bed at 8.30 p.m. It wasn't till 1993 when terrorism was officially on the wane that local organisers cobbled together the city's first fashion show.

It was in the same year that Aroma, the city's oldest hotel, expanded its 24-hour eating place. Business boomed. And last year, Las Vegas, the city's first disco, opened. Chandigarh hasn't looked back since. Parties are now taken for granted and the city throws them at the drop of a hat -- kitty parties, birthdays, ladies' sangeets. The city is big on theme parties, and since this is Chandigarh, themes include Govinda-Karisma and 'hippy' parties. djs are in demand and at Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for a night, they're affordable. Says dj Bhupinder Gupta: "A year ago I was called for one party a month. Now, I'm booked four nights a week." Then there is the way the town dresses. Mini-skirts, body suits and tights have replaced the ubiquitous salwar kameez. Swimsuits are on display at amusement parks like Fun City, and also on the catwalk. A couple of years ago, such a generous display of flesh would have scandalised the socks off the city, says Anil Khosla of Chandigarh's National Institute of Fashion Design. Now no one bats an eyelid.

Word that Chandigarh is rocking has spread. djs get called to parties at neighbouring Gobindgarh and Gurdaspur. Of late, college students from Karnal have been rolling into town in chartered buses to dance the night away in big city Chandigarh.

What is it that accounts for this amazing transformation? Television for sure. Also the growth of the city's yuppie population, as mncs set up base here. In recent times, a fair number of nris have moved in too. Dilraj Dhaliwal, a mechanical engineer, was in the entertainment business in the US for eight years before he returned to Chandigarh to open Time Out. And Vicky Bajwa, who set up Las Vegas, had worked as a dj in America. But perhaps the biggest incentive is the cost of all this entertainment. At Rs 150 a couple on Saturday nights, entrance to Las Vegas includes a snack and a cold drink. At Time Out, most of the tokens collected are in denominations of Rs 10 and Rs 20. You just can't beat this in terms of value for money.

Predictably, there are some who scoff at the change. "It's so artificial," says Avantika Pande, a young dance teacher who's also lived in Mumbai. But for Chandigarh, partying is in. And going by the response, this is one transformation that seems set to stay.

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