Sky Launch

A new place called Sky was having a launch party over the weekend. This is owned by the same people as Athena. Sari, Jo and I arrive at the Leela at around 9.45pm. She suspected that as usual, we would be the earliest and she was right.

Had expected that with a name like Sky, the bar/eatery (as they have labelled it) would be on the roof. How wrong were we? It was actually in the 2nd basement, right next to their other property on the premises, Athena. Except the main entrance was through the Galleria.

Smita explained that this was meant to be a pre-party place.

At first glance, the place appeared warm and quite cosy mainly due to the lighting. But the air-conditioning was working properly and the place became warm literally.

I am not sure what the decorator was aiming for here. The lounge area was made up of a few booths that had glass partitions covered with decals with some Grecian motif. The seats were covered with golden PVC. These were facing the bar and there was a huge gulf between which I suppose qould pass for a dance floor. Maybe they had cleared this area for the opening.

The restaurant felt better but I only had a glance. Still no answer as to why the place was called Sky.

Pat and Sonam arrived half an hour later and were followed shortly by Amrita and Arvind. Ben Salmon had arrived with some people he had to entertain. When more people arrived, the place got warmer. By 11pm, we decided to head over to Athena instead, which was connected through a large doorway.

There was a good crowd and they managed to stay open a little longer than the usual night joints. But getting a drink is still a pain, so we ended up doing a few shots, the contents of which were somewhat dubious. Saritha and Arvind braved their way to the bar and returned triumphantly with two bottles of champagne.

It must have been 12.30 am when we were unceremoniuosly ushered out of the place.

We adjourned to Sari's and Jason, Viteck and Tarun joined us. Music played and drinks flowed. We decided to call it a night about 3am. Just as Ben and I were out the door, I saw the cops ascending the stairs. I turned back and put down the volume. There were two of them. They were not friendly and actually wanted to confiscate the music system and us to go the the police station with them, just like they have done to so many clubs here that have deigned to stay open beyond closing time.

There had been a complaint from a neighbour supposedly. Questions they asked: "What time is it?", "Do you have permission to play the music so late?", "You live there, why are you here?" We weren't aware that Karnataka had turned into a police state and a curfew was actually in place.

Fortunately Arvind was able to smooth things over. Talking in an Indian language always helps. He cajoled and persuaded them and eventually gave them what we knew they came for. They actually hung around for a bit longer downstairs and we encountered them on our walk home. One of them asked, "Where you live?" Ben answered, "Aga Abbas Ali Road. Have a good evening." And we went on our way.