How different things work: Dance bars
The Supreme Court decision, striking down the Bombay Police (Amendment)
Act of 2005, has cleared the path for the return of dancing girls to the
bars in and around Mumbai. A closer look at the 'bar dancer'
phenomenon.
Dance no bar
The Supreme Court decision, striking down the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act of 2005, has cleared the path for the return of dancing girls to the bars in and around Mumbai. A closer look at the 'bar dancer' phenomenon:
Performance: It consisted of fully clothed young women in bars dancing to the tune of popular Hindi film numbers before a predominantly male audience. A striking feature was that of the women being showered with currency notes by some of the watchers. The dances were usually traditional folk - mujra, lavni, tamasha, etc - or the Bollywood bump-and-grind. At the time the dance bars were shut down - on August 15, 2005 - dancers were being paid between Rs 2,000 and Rs 10,000, and were also allowed to keep 70 per cent of the money showered on them.
History: Bar dancing evolved from the 'cabarets' presented in select restaurants of Mumbai during the 1960s and 1970s. The first such bar, called Baywatch, is said to have opened at Khalapur on the Mumbai-Pune highway in the early 1980s.
Popularity: At their height, there were 1,250 licensed dance bars in Maharashtra, around 700 of them in Mumbai. The total number was estimated at around 4,000 - the rest functioning without licences - employing in all around 75,000 dancers. Some dancers achieved considerable personal popularity, the best known among them being Tarannum Khan, who performed at Deepa Bar in Vile Parle, northwest Mumbai.
Impact: The bar dancers have been celebrated in cinema with films like Madhur Bhandarkar's national award winning Chandni Bar and books such as Suketu Mehta's much-discussed Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. They have also been the subject of a study by University of Chicago's anthropology department.
Legal battle: Dance bars were accused of violating obscenity laws and compromising the dignity of women. In a personal crusade, Maharashtra Home Minister R. R. Patil had a law passed rendering them illegal. Bar owners and dancers then approached the Bombay High Court, which supported them, but the state appealed against the decision in the Supreme Court. Even now, it is consulting legal opinion for ways to challenge the Supreme Court decision.
Royal Mess
Many companies sought to cash in on the excitement around the British royal family's new member. But for one such, the effort went embarassingly wrong. It designed plates in advance with the inscription: 'To celebrate the birth of Royal Princess', the entire investment on which will now have to be written off. It seems it had a tip-off from an insider that the Duchess of Cambridge would deliver a girl. As it happened, Prince George was born.
Big Wheel
US-based bike manufacturer Ecosse Moto Works's latest creation in the Titanium Series - the FE Ti XX - has been called the most expensive motorcycle in the world. It sells for a whopping $300,000 (Rs 1.64 crore), or the price of more than 50 Maruti Altos. It is powered by a 2,409 cc billet aluminium engine and transmits 228PS of power to the rear wheel. Only 13 units of the bike are being made to keep the series exclusive.
Missing the Target
Though the Centre is trying its best to fast track all big projects ahead of 2014 general elections, mega projects worth Rs 1,000 crore still face hurdles. A Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation report stated that of the 204 sanctioned projects currently in progress, 99 had been delayed primarily due to insufficient funding. The costs of these 99 had risen 17.7 per cent from the time they were sanctioned.
Compiled by Basudha Das
The Supreme Court decision, striking down the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act of 2005, has cleared the path for the return of dancing girls to the bars in and around Mumbai. A closer look at the 'bar dancer' phenomenon:
Performance: It consisted of fully clothed young women in bars dancing to the tune of popular Hindi film numbers before a predominantly male audience. A striking feature was that of the women being showered with currency notes by some of the watchers. The dances were usually traditional folk - mujra, lavni, tamasha, etc - or the Bollywood bump-and-grind. At the time the dance bars were shut down - on August 15, 2005 - dancers were being paid between Rs 2,000 and Rs 10,000, and were also allowed to keep 70 per cent of the money showered on them.
History: Bar dancing evolved from the 'cabarets' presented in select restaurants of Mumbai during the 1960s and 1970s. The first such bar, called Baywatch, is said to have opened at Khalapur on the Mumbai-Pune highway in the early 1980s.
Popularity: At their height, there were 1,250 licensed dance bars in Maharashtra, around 700 of them in Mumbai. The total number was estimated at around 4,000 - the rest functioning without licences - employing in all around 75,000 dancers. Some dancers achieved considerable personal popularity, the best known among them being Tarannum Khan, who performed at Deepa Bar in Vile Parle, northwest Mumbai.
Impact: The bar dancers have been celebrated in cinema with films like Madhur Bhandarkar's national award winning Chandni Bar and books such as Suketu Mehta's much-discussed Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. They have also been the subject of a study by University of Chicago's anthropology department.
Legal battle: Dance bars were accused of violating obscenity laws and compromising the dignity of women. In a personal crusade, Maharashtra Home Minister R. R. Patil had a law passed rendering them illegal. Bar owners and dancers then approached the Bombay High Court, which supported them, but the state appealed against the decision in the Supreme Court. Even now, it is consulting legal opinion for ways to challenge the Supreme Court decision.
Royal Mess
Many companies sought to cash in on the excitement around the British royal family's new member. But for one such, the effort went embarassingly wrong. It designed plates in advance with the inscription: 'To celebrate the birth of Royal Princess', the entire investment on which will now have to be written off. It seems it had a tip-off from an insider that the Duchess of Cambridge would deliver a girl. As it happened, Prince George was born.
Big Wheel
US-based bike manufacturer Ecosse Moto Works's latest creation in the Titanium Series - the FE Ti XX - has been called the most expensive motorcycle in the world. It sells for a whopping $300,000 (Rs 1.64 crore), or the price of more than 50 Maruti Altos. It is powered by a 2,409 cc billet aluminium engine and transmits 228PS of power to the rear wheel. Only 13 units of the bike are being made to keep the series exclusive.
Missing the Target
Though the Centre is trying its best to fast track all big projects ahead of 2014 general elections, mega projects worth Rs 1,000 crore still face hurdles. A Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation report stated that of the 204 sanctioned projects currently in progress, 99 had been delayed primarily due to insufficient funding. The costs of these 99 had risen 17.7 per cent from the time they were sanctioned.
Compiled by Basudha Das
