Desi Dance parties - you are better off skipping them

Date n Time : Oct 13th, 2007, 10:00 pm.

Event : Ticket to Bollywood, a Desi party nite
Location : Tantra Restaurant n Bar, LA

There were two options to choose from this Saturday. Either Garba nite or Desi dance nite. Knowing that desi dance parties are a rarity here and some more Garba nites are gonna be there this month, we went for Ticket to Bollywood. Name sounded pretty funky and the poster was very attractive. The tag line read " Your Ticket to the ultimate mix of Bollywood and Bhangra beats ever ". Very impressive right ?? Well, we were very excited. The nite was supposed to start at 10:00 pm, but being in Sunset Blvd, which is about one and a half hr drive from my place, we left @ 8:00 pm.

At first I thought Tantra would be like another club here called Sutra Lounge, which is a more cozy club with a great dance floor, and nice ambiance. But when I reached the place I found that it was more of a restaurant wherein they were moving the tables to make way for the dance floor...hmmm..My first disappointment. Read on for more blunders committed by the so called Loose Control Productions, the organizers of this nite.

So it was 10:00 pm and we were already there. But where are the people ?? I saw few Americans, but not so many Desis...ohhh ...how could I forget that Desis always come late for everything. And so the dance party started, and as there were more Americans than Indians, the DJ decided to play some American pop songs. As usual all desis were sitting on the couches surrounding the so called dance floor and just Americans were dancing. There were two TVs on the walls which were ironically playing Jaanemann sad song which had Salman Khan crying ...pathetic !! So we decided that this aint good, and went to have the next attraction of the nite...hookahs !! Now this was the best part of the whole nite. We tried the Exotic Apple flavor and it was amazing...the setting was arabic style and we were lucky to go there early and get a good place...Nirvana Attained ! We loved it so much that we stayed there for about 2 hrs...and that being jus 12 bucks, it was time and money well spent. Now we enter the dance floor again.

And hey!! we thought it was good to take the break as now the dance floor was pretty decently occupied. And also there was nice desi music playing. However as this was not a regular club, the acoustics were horrible and the songs were way too loud. Following were all the noteworthy incidents which made this desi nite a bummer :
1) The DJs sucked big time...there were two of them of whom one didn't know how to mix songs..from fast song like Mast Kalander from Hey Baby, he abruptly jumped to Salaam E Ishq title track. Now why would you play a slow romantic song right after a thumping bhangra song ?? ask DJ Karan.
2) There were breaks many a times. A song is playing and suddenly music stops. What the fcuk !!! Highly unprofessional. We later came to know that the cd was stuck..hehee...i guess that was their tag line..ultimate mix...hehehe...a mix which also has moments of silence.
3) Some desis were dancing in a way which cannot be explained...it can only be experienced. This one guy was so hyper that he was dancing like a robot / Kusthi fighter / Karate Champ / WWE wrestler. Anything but dance, and he was repeating the same moves for about 3 hrs. His wife was so embarrassed that she started dancing with other folks..hehe...and he was jumping and dancing so much that eventually he succeeded in creating a big circle for only himself to dance.
4) The Bar didn't have my favorite and popular drink..Jaeger Bomb...I was so damn pissed off...
5) Many Americans left in between as they were thoroughly disappointed. I wonder if they'd ever go to any Indian dance parties anymore.
6) In between people were going to the DJ and asking their favorite song and he was abruptly stopping a song and playing that...a total mess.
7) In between, the DJ was requesting everyone to make some noise, and in return everyone were booing him. In fact few were shouting " You Suck big time dope ". I was one of them :).
8) As we all know that best things come at the end, here it was the opposite. The worst thing came at the end when DJ Esque started playing Ek Do Theen from Tezaab...oh my god...what a blunder...everyone were laughing in the floor and didn't know what to do.
9) The music was so boring that many people left even before 3:00am, and so the DJ was forced to stop playing the music by 2:00 am. A total flop show by Loose control productions or rather Loosu pasange.

So there you go. I tried to cover as many disastrous moments as possible. I don't think I missed any. But yeah..one thing is for sure, I wouldn't be going for another desi dance party, and I would advice everyone reading this post to be very cautious when deciding to head for one. See if its a proper club, and if not you would be better off staying away from it. Play nice music at home and dance to it. You'll have more fun . Desi dance parties are highly unprofessional and they might turn out to be nightmares. If you really wanna enjoy clubbing experience, go for some nice proper well known nightclubs. Like there's one called V2O in Long Beach. Great crowd, music and an upscale atmosphere. Two big dance floors and lot of room to walk around. They have amazing decor: comfy couches, modern furniture. And there would be enough people to make it fun, but not too crowded. And above all, very professional which would allow you to dance non stop for 4 - 5 hrs. If you live in LA or the OC it is definitely worth the drive to check V2o out rather than looking out for these over hyped desi nites.