It’s late on a Thursday night and the party cognoscenti are headed for one of Asia’s slickest nightspots. From the exterior, f.bar, a bunker-like building with an unpromising squat black façade is guarded by serious-looking security personnel clad head to toe in matching black.
Inside it is a very different story. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls, gold chandeliers and soft, low-slung divans welcome the well heeled. Drape-like screens reflect endless images of fashion models, the latest house music thumps and the beautiful people gyrate, cigarettes in one hand, whisky sodas in the other.
Yet another night out on Asia’s wild club circuit of Hong Kong, Singapore or perhaps even Bangkok? No actually. For while f.bar (the trendy branding which is actually short for Fashionbar) may scream Lan Kwai Fong, Orchard Road or Sukhumvit, this, believe it or not, is New Delhi.
Perched on the fringes of the exclusive Qutab Golf Course in south Delhi just past some of the city’s worst slums, f.bar is a franchised bar concept from US cable TV channel FTV (Fashion Television). The channel runs interminable videos of waif-like models prancing around Europe’s catwalks, clad often in little more than greasepaint and a pout.
New Delhi might seem an odd franchise venue for one of the US’s hottest brands but it has certainly not stopped the punters rolling in. Chanel, Calvin Klein and Gucci are the attire of choice at f.bar: there is barely a sari or a turban to be seen.
Also conspicuous by their absence are the usual gold credit cards needed to meet the exorbitant prices of such clubs. From the Rs1,000 ($22) entrance fee ? two weeks’ wages for a mere mortal on New Delhi’s less salubrious streets ? to the fancy cocktails and designer beers, everyone is paying cash, peeled from thick wads of rupee bills.
?It’s the nouveau riche here,? says one patron by way of explanation of f.bar’s clientele. ?They all pay cash. The agency business is the largest industry in New Delhi.?
That industry, according to local observers, is the oil that greases the wheels of government in the nation’s capital: introducers, fixers, lobbyists and middlemen. It is, they claim, what helps make the black economy roughly equal in size to India’s official one.
?It’s a completely parallel economy,? says Kabir, a businessman from Bombay, ?it functions purely on a cash basis across India but especially in the north. It’s rampant, especially in the government and property businesses.?
There is little evidence of business being discussed at f.bar late on this particular Thursday evening. Instead, smartly dressed couples coo in the darker recesses of the bar, arranging late-night assignations.
?I know that girl over there,? says another Bombay expatriate with a hint of intrigue. ?She used to work in my office. That’s not her official boyfriend.?
As India emerges onto the global economic scene, its culture and values are coming under greater strain and it is not just western tastes in dress, music and drinks that are to blame.
?Parents are still trying to make choices for their kids,? says Digraj, a New Delhi businessman. ?Before, in Indian culture it was a sin to enjoy yourself: you worked hard, made money and you saved for a house.?
There is not much evidence of such abstinence as Digraj looks around the bar. ?This generation is learning to enjoy itself,? he says. ?Now, the money’s been made. These people have houses so they’re spending.?
Those words will be music to the ears of western brand owners like FTV which has opened a second bar in India, in Bangalore. The expansion is set to continue as well, with the chain looking for franchisees in Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Chennai and other big Indian cities according to local media.
They are unlikely to be short of customers, according to Kabir. ?Women are going out a lot earlier in life,? he says. ?Suddenly you have parents who 10 years ago wouldn’t have let their daughters out and now don’t even think about it.?
The reason, he says, is increasing western influence: ?It’s what the parents see on TV now. What with MTV, Friends and even Sex and the City being aired here, even some of the more conservative people are opening up.?
Multinational corporations and other western brand owners must be salivating at the prospect of a huge Indian middle class growing rapidly wealthier and hungrier for western music, clothes food and products, even as the vast majority of India’s grindingly poor population becomes increasingly left behind.
What is less clear is what effect such influences will ultimately have on Indian values and culture, still so strongly in evidence everywhere in India. Everywhere, it seems, except in such places as f.bar.
Kabir acknowledges the threat but sees a sunnier side to the changes. ?It’s making India more capable of doing business with the west,? he says. ?It’s influencing the culture so much it’s becoming easier to deal with westerners as we become closer to them. Indians are changing but we’re not in a hurry: we’ll do it slowly and steadily.?
Slow and steady are not words to describe the in-crowd at f.bar. As Thursday night becomes Friday morning and the DJ cranks up the sound system one more ear-splitting notch, a cheer rises from the dance floor, drinks are drained with furious enthusiasm and the crowd parties just a little bit harder. Welcome to New India, via New Delhi.
