Pubs in Gurgaon opting for stringent screening than employing bouncers

15 February, 2013

In a series of exclusive interviews with this citizen journalist, pub owners of Gurgaon said that they are not hiring bouncers to prevent brawls and other flare-ups in a pub. Instead, they are being extra vigilant in whom they allow entry by talking to them in detail, and inside they have security guards for protection. This trend is bound to re-assure the men and women of Gurgaon.

With frequent occurance of brawl in the pubs of Gurgaon's malls, the security and safety of men and women has become a matter of major concern. The standard strategy of pub management used to be to employ well-muscled bouncers to prevent ugly brawls becoming a safety threat for its customers. But this method has been more or less scrapped - except for exceptions and large-scale events like New Year's parties. Pubs are now restricting the entry of people, allowing only limited people that too only after careful scrutiny.

Their logic is simple. "If you are careful at entry point than you can resolve 90% of these cases," said Mrityunjay Tiwari, General Manger of Vapour Pub in MegaCity Mall. As per Tiwari, problems and brawls start when pubs, in order to earn more, admit every kind of people, and don't do any kind of detailed scrutiny. "We need to do our study and homework well before to avoid these kinds of brawls. In Vapour we take inside only well-mannered and educated people after doing a good check of their profile and background. We can understand a person to some extent by talking to him, and only when we feel confident about the particular guest, do we take them in," Tiwari added.

Rohit Garg, GM of Ion Club & Dinning Lounge of JMD Arcade Mall, on Gurgaon's MG Road, also believes in the same strategy to avoid any kind of incident. "We have started entertaining only corporate parties and sometimes couples. We are now avoiding such crowd that can create chaos," Garg told this citizen journalist .

I also believe that it is we who decide to get engaged in these brawls or not. If we are coming to these places where we know that people will get drunk and may go out of their senses then we should be prepared to protect ourself and ready to avoid these situations," said Garg.

Ion Club has trained staff who talk and take all details of guests coming to the pub before giving them entrance. "In corporate events and gatherings there are very less chances for these brawls to happen but even if somebody creates uneasiness for other guests then we have security guards who calmly take care of them, and we also have CCTV cameras," added Garg, while admitting that having bouncers is not the only solution. "But if one has bouncers then they should be well-mannered and educated who can treat guests in a good manner.

Vapour Pub is also depending only on security guards and is not hiring bouncers any more. "I believe that hiring bouncers leads to more chances of fights because in Gurgaon we find no such bouncers who can handle situation calmly and with a cool mind," said Tiwari. "We have trained staff who focus on guests' needs like proper sitting for them. If they are given proper services then also there are very less chances for fights," he added.

For him it is better to tackle a problem with wisdom than to use power and counter-attack. "Even if something happens I, as a GM, take personal responsibility and go to the guest and apologise in most of the cases even if we had made no mistake. There is no use of engaging ourself in arguments as we understand that they are drunk and may be out of their senses. So we don't believe in giving them philosophical lectures," observes Tiwari.

In pubs and bars most of the times fights happen among groups and there are many issues related to women security which are a major concern in today's time, and this makes these pubs' management to think out of the box rather just having bouncers. "We used to have bouncers earlier but today we have our own security guards who can handle these situations very wisely. They can read the intentions of guys sitting in a pub around women and take proactive actions to avoid any incident. But in extreme situations we take all precautions, and we call the local PCR. We are not worried that our image or goodwill will get spoilt. We give priority to the security of women," concluded Tiwari.