I miss the partying out of, say, two decades ago, when I used to be happy with what I got at Bombay's few night clubs. Places like Studio 29, Cellars, 1900s, RGs... when it was fashionable to play limited music and when MTV and Channel V were not on the scene to expose me to more. The DJ, and it was always a local DJ, there were never any foreign DJs, could have played All Night Long as his grand finale every night, and it would still be fun. I used to go out five nights a week and more than the partying, I would be happy with the new friends I made. Now I cannot count a single new friend I have made at any of Bombay's new hot and happening nightspots, Insomnia, Mikanos, Velocity and Enigma.

Night clubs are hi-tech discos now, they concentrate on the music, and the crowds are young, the feel of the place is young, and the mature, old people who used to go out in the 1970s and 1980s, have grown up. They don't enjoy these places. Night clubs have lost them. I don't see that family-like give and take among today's party animals, nobody knows anybody else anymore, this is not a trend with our youth. Half of them are lost in their own worlds!

But this has got much to do with the restriction on time and the fact that most happening night clubs are not in five star hotels anymore. These places are open only till 1.30 and the action starts hotting up only by midnight. It gives the night life-seeker hardly any time. Hardly any energy is expended here. To get into a frenetic mood, you need to warm up, you need to get into the swing, get into the mood, and this is where the DJ helps you. If he's not playing good music, your high is a low!

However, look at this never-say-die spirit among Bombay'e entrepreneurs, they keep giving people like me new places to go to all the time! Take Insomnia at the Taj, very elelectic, the change of mood is through lights, it has a very 'loungy' feel and the people are looking for that feel. DJ Akhtar Fazal, one of our premier DJs, who's still riding high from 1900s, makes the place happen. But you won't get teeny-boppers here, there's a membership fee, and Insomnia draws the real spenders.

Mikanos at Landmarc Citi, Worli, has an industrial feel about it. It is one whole feeling, one big place, with a different energy flowing through it. DJs Megha Kawale and Vijay Waghale are in command here and they make the place swing, though recently, Mikanos had DJ Ravin of the Budha Bar in Paris playing the celebrity DJ one night. The crowds went berserk. I think something's lacking here if we have to get foreign DJs to move our crowds. I have yet to find out why there is so much hype about these foreign DJs.

Velocity, with DJ Remi, is demarcated into lounge, retro and house areas, you change your mood by going to a different area and listening to the music being played there. You feel the 'speed', the velocity, through the music. DJ Remi plays what the public wants and tries to make the place swing.

Enigma at the JW Marriott Hotel, has a very Moulin Rouge feel, it's bursting with energy, DJ Aqueel is great, he plays around the world for NRIs, he knows the pulse of his listners, he takes the people at Enigma from techno and trance to Bollywood. That's his style. From Hollywood to Bollywood. He turns the place around. Enigma also has some old world charm, you can sit near the dance floor, behind the bar, in the lounge, and you can even talk if that's what you want to do.