Youth don a trendy lifestyle

BHUBANESWAR: The city youth have undergone a complete metamorphosis. Donning a metro lifestyle, they are not shy to let their hair down at pubs and other fun hangouts.
Trendy discotheques and pubs, glitzy hangouts, up-market food joints, unisex hair salons, branded apparel showrooms, swanky malls, flashy spas and multiplex mushrooming in the city and the in-style crowd frequenting them say it all.Shedding inhibitions, the young brigade is marching ahead on the campus and off it, in the park and after dark.
Along with the transformation in the city, the Bhubaneswar youth has come of age - the throbbing nightlife, the fashion statement in public and the life on the fast-track all symbolize it.
If the floating student population acts as the catalyst, our own Bhubaneswarites, born and brought up here, are now in the thick of things.
"Contrary to the notion, more than 70% of youngsters dropping in at happening hangouts are Odias. Of them girls form a sizeable number," said the manager of a pub.
"When I acquired franchise of Sparks discotheque (now Rock On) in 2003, people looked at me with cynicism," said Sanjeev Patra, the managing director of a hotel which houses the Rock On discotheque near Xavier's Square.
"Now I am reaping the benefits. Most of the people thronging the discotheque are IT professionals and engineering and MBA students," he said.
The bustling discotheques on weekends are a pointer that youngsters are ready to shell out that extra buck for fun and frolic a la their metro counterparts. From reluctantly handing out a tenner to the nearest barber to splurging Rs 300 at plush salons for a hairdo, the Bhubaneswar youth has taken rapid strides.
"The city is growing and the urban lifestyle is fast catching up," said a staffer of Planet M, a music chain outlet.
"Bhubaneswar has also become a favourite retail destination of late. The alacrity with which leading retail brands and retail café chains and the like are setting up shops definitely show signs of change," said Suresh Prusty, the father of two college-going girls.
Analysts say the attitudinal shift, rise in spending capacity, increase in floating student population and growth in IT sector have ushered in the change.
Change is infectious. A young couple is no longer apprehensive about moving hand-in-hand in a park and a homemaker making a fashion statement at a social gathering no longer raises eyebrows.
The gen Y epitomizes a Bhubaneswar that is taking off.