No night ended before 5 am: Pooja Bedi

OMG!! Can't believe Bombay Times has taken me back to being 17! What an era! Back then Mumbai was Bombay, a buzzing city that never slept.

South Mumbai was where all the action was, and 1900's at the Taj, ruled the roost. We used to rock the night away, in our then very fashionable micro mini-skirts, a new phenomenon that had taken the teenage fashion scene by storm. 1900's would get super crowded, so crowded that the adventurous few, me and Ana Singh included, would end up dancing on top of the humungous speakers. Thumping 80's music kept us grooving till the wee hours of the morning. No moral police hounded us back then, and the only time curfews were those enforced by our parents, not the law.

I remember RG's and Cellar positioning themselves as 'quality night clubs', with everyone waiting in long lines outsides, and only those who knew the bouncers well enough, sashayed past the queues. Those were utterly crazy days when no night ended before 5 am or was complete without a trip to Trattoria at the President, or Shamiana at the Taj, for breakfast, before heading home. Back in the suburbs, which were back then sneered upon by the 'townies', we had our own little treasure. A fabulous night club called Xanadu at Horizon hotel. The rich, the famous, the glamourous all wanted to be there. Maybe it was the funky decor, the over-indulgent bar tender, the incredible music or simply the dynamic environment created by its owners Andre, Viraf, Richard and Lennie who ensured that every night outdid the other. Oh yes! Lest I forget, there was Cavern at Sea Rock Hotel with its mesmerising underground feel that added magic to the Bombay night scene.

But those were also days when no one paid attention to drunk driving, everyone post 16 drank alcohol, albeit illegal, and women were looked upon differently for 'being independent'. I'm glad a lot of those things are being looked at seriously today and that there is an emphasis on law and order, and also that women have now established their right to party as hard as men... but gosh! I really do miss dancing till 5 am! And I also miss calling Mumbai, Bombay!