In the parking lot next to Where Else, one of Gurugram’s most-coveted open-air bar-pub-clubs on the Golf Course Extension road in Sector 59, stand Porsches, BMWs, and Mercedes-Benzes, even the odd Aston Martin. The neon lights of the signage reflect off their shiny surfaces. People from DLF’s Camellias and Magnolias, luxury properties that cost ₹50 crore upward, come in, dropping names (obviously, this is The ‘Gaon), to cut queues for a table.
They can afford some of the best bars in Delhi-NCR — Sidecar for instance, that’s on the world’s top 50 bars list. They’re here instead, at a local bring-your-own-bottle (BYOB) place, where they’ll buy liquor from the theka (Hindi slang for a shop selling alcohol) outside, and carry it in to drink in plastic glasses. They’ll order some (fairly mediocre) chicken tikka or a burger or French fries, sitting amidst 20-somethings — the legal age to drink is 21 in Delhi-NCR, mid-lifers, and corporate types. They revel in the freedom of a city that has seen development over just the past two decades. There are no ‘uncles’ judging, or children running around, or stools for luxury handbags to be placed with care.
Gurugram’s BYOBs or ahatas, as they are informally called locally, were once places where middle-class executives went after a day’s work. They would buy a bottle of beer or wine at the liquor store next door, eat a snack, and catch up on office gossip. Ahata is Hindi, meaning premises, also called anumat kaksh or permit room, a throwback to pre-liberalised India, where a room within a restaurant was demarcated to serve alcohol, and was mostly frequented by men.
