Jalandharites miss nightlife, groovy music, disco lights

Deepkamal Kaur

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 18

Covid-19 has brought in tough time for the party freaks of the city. Not having donned the latest prom dresses with high heels and danced with friends to the groovy music being played by a DJ along a misty, pool side since long, it is making them feel sickening.

The night life of the city came to a screeching halt in March end as all clubs, hangouts, bars, cafes, terrace gardens and lounges got shut in the lockdown. Almost five months on, the night curfew still persists and all hotels have to close down at 8.30 pm, which means that the last order cannot be placed after 8 pm.

The city that used to party all night, especially around the weekends emptying champagne bottles, waiting for celebs to perform live for them at the clubs in the backdrop of flashy disco lights goes into complete silence as it begins to go dark.

But this silence is getting too long for many who have been finding ways out to beat the prevailing monotony. Says Natasha Sahni, a frequent party reveller: “All this while, I had been feeling as if I was drained out of all energy and needed something to charge me up again. I discussed it all with some friends in metro cities and they told me that they were now using live streaming of DJs on FB or music apps to have the feel of those pulsating beats while staying at home. It was then that I decided to redo my balcony, deck it up with dim lights and have a casual set up with bean bags, couches and a good sound system. Now whenever there is a pleasant weather in the evenings, we ready some snacks and drinks, call in few friends and try to recreate the same club or dance bar kind of an aura.”

Virtual parties are what many youngsters have tried out but to not much of a success. “We tried connecting through Zoom playing same music and dancing to it but to not much of a success. Even the farewell party that we had planned to organise at the end of our college was organised through Zoom. We played all the best numbers including Sidhu Moosewala’s ‘Dhakka’ or ‘Old Skool’ and even Justin Beiber’s ‘Cause I don’t care, as long as you just hold me near’ but the thrill of being together and doing fun somehow remains missing”, said Sakshi Juneja, a college passout. She exclaims it can in no way match the atmosphere that we see at the popular getaways in the city including De Neuvo, Peddlers, The Throwback Story or even Brew Master.

A hub of activities for the crème-de-la of the town, even the Jullunder Gymkhana club had its gates shut for all activities since March end. But this nerve centre of the Jalandharites, which had since the lockdown turned to look like a haunted house, is beginning to buzz with activity once again. While sports arena including gym, badminton court, lawn tennis court, squash and billiards room had opened up few weeks back, the club is set to open its restaurant also from tomorrow. As of date, only 70 of the 4,270 members are coming to the club for availing gym and sports facilities. But the club administration hopes that the restaurant will add in some more life as members had been complaining that they were tired and sick of staying back at home and wanted to slowly get back to some socialising at the club.

Honorary secretary of the club, Tarun Sikka, shared various measures that had been taken to maintain hygiene at the club. “We have sensor-equipped hand sanitisers at the entry of the club. The membership cards of the members will not be physically checked now as we have installed a digital system for this. The members will have to keep the cards in a slot after which a welcome message with their name and photograph will appear on the screen and then only the automatic gates will open. Other than warding off chances of contact, the system will ensure that no outsiders are able to take any services from the club”, he said.

The gym-goers and sports facility users too are given proper timeslots and members have been asked to adhere to the given timing. After every batch leaves in an hour’s time, the gym and all gadgets are sanitised.

Other than the Gymkhana Club, there are other active social clubs in Jalandhar including Rotary Club, Innerwheel Club etc. The golf clubs of the Punjab Armed Police, Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, and the Border Security Force too have been other places for socialising. But with the highest footfall, the Gymkhana Club managed by the district administration has certainly remained to be the most frequented places of the city.

Its women wing had been especially active with kitty parties, tambola, Ms Teej contests, car rallies, Holi and other celebrations and entertainment events held all throughout the year.