Mumbai professionals welcome 'Bombay barhoppers' with open arms

Once or twice in a month, over a hundred people storm one bar to another and drink like a fish. They are not a new wave of danger that has descended upon the city but are professionals from various backgrounds letting their hair down after days of hard work.

The tipplers are part of a 2-year-old drinking movement called Bombay Barhoppers. Over 150 people register themselves online to be a part of the next bar hop which takes them to new watering holes every month.

The hops are as much about drinks as they are about networking. Lawyers, bankers, startup professionals, media professionals come together on the same platform and get to know different people while visiting one bar after the other in succession. The founders of Bombay Bar hoppers claim that there have also been successful love stories.

Bhavin Shah, 30, a businessman, was wondering aloud with a friend about how much fun bar hops in Mumbai would be and, before he knew, it he had started a group on Twitter. "I partnered with Ketan Pandit. Their Twitter profile has around 1,600 followers and they form a major chunk of people who actually attend the hops. The first one we had in South Mumbai, we were expecting 20 but got 75 people."

Bhavin said that once the bar they had gone to claimed that the hoppers had guzzled 200 litres of beer. People pay by the drink and the duo plans the hops two months in advance. Ketan, 33, is a marketing professional who has also taken a course in mixing drinks and bar-tending.

"We have a web-site where we ask people to register. We first screen them through their Twitter profiles and then send them invites," said Ketan. The duo agrees that safety is of paramount importance and they usually partner with cab services if people have had one too many. Besides striking deals for for discounts on drinks, they also hold annual bar-hoppers party.

What they have noticed is that there have been more women than men attending the hops. Most of their crowd also comprises newcomers to the city.

Marketing professional Neha Kapoor, who has been in Mumbai for past three years, learnt about the hops through a friend. "When you are working, it's difficult to make plans with your friends all the time. With the bar hops, you can catch up with your friends and also go to places you have never been to. It is also good to meet people you are friends with on Twitter but haven't met personally. It's as regular as the usual tweet-up meeting and recently we are seeing more new faces from freshers in the corporate world to professional musicians. It helps to make new friends if you are an outgoing person," said Kapoor who also got a chance to flex her vocal muscles at the annual party. "We rehearsed for 3 weekends and when I performed my friends were surprised because they didn't know I could sing."

Priyal Sanghavi comes from an advertising background and before the bar hops was introduced she usually met people at conferences or house parties. "At these hops, you can walk up to a stranger and introduce yourself without being misconstrued, though some people are not that open to talking to strangers. It's safe, fun and welcoming," she said.

Bhavin and Ketan said that they plan on making the bar hoppers a pan Indian scene and will host one in Delhi soon. Though they claim to have made no profits from the groups as yet, they said they don't know what the future holds for them. They do assure of always having after-parties.

Where to find them?
You can find them on Twitter @bombaybarhopper and www.bombaybarhoppers.in. They are present on Instagram too