Last December in Mumbai, I stumbled upon the Holy Grail of beer guzzlers: a service which ensures you get back home safe after you waste yourself. The Party Hard Drivers service is an entrepreneurial achievement. The premise is simple: You drink and they drive. So we drank to out heart’s content without one person having to spoil his evening by being sober and we all got home safe and warm.
Cut to my birthday in Delhi this year and it was a different ball game altogether. First of all there’s no ‘Party Hard’ service here and secondly the city, which boasts about its ability to jugaado almost anything, hasn’t managed to come close to Party Hard Drivers.
Delhi, which boasts of a thriving nightlife hipper than NY, doesn’t even attempt to take care of its patrons. People have driven back home in an inebriated state and reached home safe but once in a while you hear of a party with a bad ending. What we need is a similar service.
On my birthday, I decided to go out with friends and since I was turning 25, I could legally consume copious amounts of alcohol. I did just that. And since none of my friends were willing to relinquish the free booze I was paying for, we decided to call a cab to take us back home.
Many pubs in Delhi have tied up with cab services and offer a home-drop service. Sitting pretty on our table was a tent card that advised us to rent a cab. Filled to the gills, I bid farewell to my partners in crime and somehow managed to stumble out of the pub to look for my cabbie. Standing there in the darkness was a man who, from a distance, looked like a villain from a slasher film. In my attempt to sound sober, I rattled off some directions, sat in the cab and the journey began. Even though the cabbie did not misbehave with me during my short drive home, the reputation of Delhi precedes itself. I kept recounting the numerous cases of harassment of women, not to mention the shooting of a college student last week, and managed to drive myself to a state of paranoia. The driver’s repeated glances through the rear-view mirror didn’t help. Secondly, he kept asking me for directions. When you’re drunk and paranoid, the last thing you remember is directions. On a serious note, the cabs should have GPRS facilities.
{{/usCountry}}Many pubs in Delhi have tied up with cab services and offer a home-drop service. Sitting pretty on our table was a tent card that advised us to rent a cab. Filled to the gills, I bid farewell to my partners in crime and somehow managed to stumble out of the pub to look for my cabbie. Standing there in the darkness was a man who, from a distance, looked like a villain from a slasher film. In my attempt to sound sober, I rattled off some directions, sat in the cab and the journey began. Even though the cabbie did not misbehave with me during my short drive home, the reputation of Delhi precedes itself. I kept recounting the numerous cases of harassment of women, not to mention the shooting of a college student last week, and managed to drive myself to a state of paranoia. The driver’s repeated glances through the rear-view mirror didn’t help. Secondly, he kept asking me for directions. When you’re drunk and paranoid, the last thing you remember is directions. On a serious note, the cabs should have GPRS facilities.
{{/usCountry}}He managed to clock 0 to 80 kph in less than 4 seconds and that did not help the fact that my vision was blurred thanks to all the alcohol in my system.
30 minutes and a few close shaves later, I did manage to reach home in one piece but would I risk taking a cab in the middle of the night after partying? No! This experience reinforced the notion that Delhi is still not ready for a service on the lines of Party Hard. It is much too unsafe for women.