That’s the trick

14 hours of straight sleep and I’m in good shape. Of course, that means I woke up at 2 in the afternoon, but that’s fine. I’m doing this work at night anyway, right?

Last night, I went to a few places. The Czar bar and Dome are both in my hotel, the former a vodka bar (with rather unimaginative bartenders who nonetheless mix a mean martini) and the latter a rooftop lounge a la Sky 60 (lots of white couches and a sticky breeze coming off the Arabian Sea). Also went to three other hotel bars, one of which was fancy (Opium Den at the Oberoi), one of which was a bit dated (Bay View Bar, also at the Oberoi; furniture that was “upscale” in the late ’80s, a jazz duo that wasn’t half bad and no view of the bay unless you were right at the bar … and the windows weren’t fogged up) and one of which was a bit corny (Geoffrey’s, one of a chain of “pubs” that reminded me of nothing less than a Chili’s with a British pub theme). Drinks in these places aren’t cheap (beer starts around 3 bucks; cocktails at the Opium Den started at 10 bucks!) and the clientele was predictably staid. Of course, it was a Monday night, which meant it was mainly tourists and business people, so that’s to be expected.

The highlight was a bar called The Ghetto, over in a neighborhood called Breach Candy. Very grungy and friendly, with a pool table, Green Day on the stereo and wrestling on the TV. Nice. It was, of course, right next to an ad hoc temple, where there were some riotous Ganesh festivities going on. My cab driver (Him: “You want a girl? I’ll get you a girl.” Me: “No thanks.” Him: “Hmmph.”) said that with the Ganesh Ganapatis going on, most people are curtailing their drinking in favor of visiting temples, etc. There were huge groups of kids hanging out along Marine Drive and all over town, spontaneous bursts of dancing would happen with one kid banging a drum and everyone else spazzing out around him. It was great.