Moral policing? No need.

The Kolkata of 50s and much of 60s had cabaret dancers holding the center-stage in renowned restaurants and hotels in the evenings till wee hours. Industrialists, patrons of various hues, and those who had money to spare would throng the venues to enjoy and let enjoy their dues. Liquor flowed like water in the Hooghly.

There were other places of merriment, notably the sophisticated clubs, but there would rarely be the presence of cabaret dancers to add to titillation, though here too liquor was the fulcrum around which the fun circulated in abundance.

For the well-heeled people who enjoyed life like the smooth moist butter about to melt, bad times fell soon as the city found itself engulfed in the fight against class enemies.

Today as the state strides the path of economic revival and growth, the days of fun with women ready to reveal have firmly arrived.

As I read today’s TOI story, Kolkata shocks moral police, telling vivid details of the last year’s last day’s late partying, there is no doubt that you cannot call Kolkata a ‘bare-all backbencher’ any longer.

What is especially notable is that the urge to feel the warmth is not restricted among the men only. The fair sex is also an inseparable part of it. Sample the excerpt from TOI.

At a city disc of a five-star hotel at three in the morning, the stench of puke, the blinding smoke, the psychedlic lights and party animals falling over each other were somewhat overbearing for those dead sober. With smashed women crying hoarse at the thought of going home, couples smooching as if they were part of an adhesive commercial and organisers counting fresh notes while turning a deaf ear to queries about programme timings — it was an eye-opener of sorts.

As Mir put it, “I found myself surrounded in a sea of cleavage. People neither knew where they were nor where their clothes were. The more people drank, the more they sank and didn’t know whom to thank. Beer guzzlers took to their mugs as if all liquor shops would be banned for the whole of 2008.”

Crass partying, did you say? Let it be. A vibrant city has many faces. The ‘fleshy’ urge is one of them.