(Not) Born in the USA

My uncle's house is right next to Mumbai's Hard Rock Cafe. I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't know a lot about this chain in the United States, even though there's one in every major city. I always thought of Hard Rock as a tourist trap.

On Saturday night, when I went, the place was packed at midnight but began to open up by 1 am. I don't know where people in Mumbai go to party as the night wears on, although I've heard (likely apocryphal) tales about how seriously young Mumbaikers take their nightlife. In a country where many young people still live at home, clubs are maybe a necessary escape from communal living.

Unlike most venues in Mumbai, the Hard Rock Cafe is massive. It's situated on former mill land. Mumbai used to be famous for its cotton mills. The manufacturing has dried up, although many of the mill workers still agitate for their salaries, and the land is being slowly sold off and redeveloped. In a city as frighteningly cramped as this one, any land in south or central Mumbai is extremely valuable (hence the government's continuing struggle with slum residents to raze and redevelop the slums: those who live there would literally not be able to afford anywhere else. Even a shack in a slum costs a monthly rent)

The Hard Rock crowd could have been the same as at a bar in Wrigleyville. I saw plenty of girls in jersey tops and young guys in suits. Everyone was drinking, and one wildly-dancing group of people was already disastrously drunk. The walls were decorated with the rock paraphernelia typical of this particular outlet, guitars and outfits that once belonged to the legends of rock and roll. I liked an acid-green guitar that once belonged to someone whose name I can't remember. If only I were a rock star and had a reason to own such an item.

Everyone I saw was young and affluent. "Yuppies" are a worldwide phenomenon, I've noticed. They flock to these types of venues, where the drinks are expensive and the crowd is always of a particular stripe.

We danced along to 80s rock (I requested "Eye of the Tiger" and felt validated when the crowd cheered for the song) and had a few drinks before calling it a night. It wasn't a wild evening, but it did remind me of home.