BOWLED OVER: Promoting family-centric ambience and facilities is a top priority with clubs in Ludhiana (top) and Chandigarh

Five years ago, Bathinda, with its smoke-spewing thermal power plant and a sepulchral silence for nightlife, would have evoked little by way of zeal in an entertainment-famished populace. This somnolent district of Punjab may still not qualify as a swinging hotspot for the feisty brigade, but the residents knows better. They have the Civil Lines Club. Founded in 1996 by a group of people looking for a place to unwind, the initiative met with much defiance and only a smattering of memberships. Fifty members acquired life subscriptions for Rs 2,000 each. Today, there are 1,000 such members. And the fee? Rs 31,000.

Bathinda is not an exception. In Ludhiana, where the prosperity index seldom confronts a gravitational plunge and buying the latest luxury car has been a thriving passion, enlisting in the Sutlej Club is the new preoccupation. Since 1996, the club has quadrupled its fee and doubled its membership, with a ceiling of 3,000. A cheque for Rs 1.75 lakh, a graduate degree and income-tax returns for the past five years qualify one for membership. But as the waiting list swells and the club grapples with nearly 100 membership queries a month-some with recommendations from the Prime Minister's Office-there is little assurance it will be granted even in the next 10 years. Though Lodhi Club is an alternative with an entry fee of Rs 75,000 and 1,300 members, it is still considered the "poor man's Sutlej Club".

MONEY MANTRAS Sutlej Club, Ludhiana Members 3,000 Fee: Rs 1.75 lakh USP: State-of-the-art bowling alley imported from the US, badminton court with Rs 30 lakh French surface. Chandigarh Club, Chandigarh Members 5,000 Fee: Rs 61,000 USP: 20 tennis courts, all-season swimming pool with German filters, multi-cuisine dining halls. Civil Lines Club, Bathinda Members: 1,000 Fee: Rs 31,000 USP: Admits only married couples, well stacked library for children, celebrates all traditional festivals.

Be it cash-rich Ludhiana, tradition-driven Amritsar or status-conscious Chandigarh, the entire state is in the grip of club culture. More than a dozen clubs have sprung up in Punjab in the past eight years, even as the memberships of the older clubs have increased three to fourfold. Not only has clubbing turned into the most sought after recreation but, more important, is seen as a lifestyle statement. Membership of a prestigious club has emerged as a definitive status symbol among the affluent, upwardly mobile middle class.

Much of the clubs' popularity owes to the changing social attitudes. Seen as a place for drinking and gambling for the elite, clubs did not conform to the middle-class value system till not too long ago. So when Sushil Jain, 43, a garment exporter with a Rs 40-crore turnover, became a member of the Sutlej Club in 1994, he was virtually declared an outcast by his conservative family. Eight years later, his family boasts 13 club members. "Earlier, clubbing was a sin. Now, it is a status symbol," says Jain for whom the club is a "second home".

The altered attitude goes well with the increased spending power. "While the family size has shrunk, the disposable incomes have multiplied, changing the middle-class notions about entertainment," says Panjab University sociologist Rajesh Gill. Which is why top clubs are now shedding their elitist aura. Hangouts for the beau monde-the Chandigarh Club in the state capital has the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana, high court judges and senior bureaucrats as honorary members-till a few years ago, clubs are now letting in the middle class that has money to splurge and aspires to rub shoulders with the power pack.

The perception is shared by an increasing number of neo-rich, middle- class people who see clubs as a means to climb the social ladder. "A club gives you the sense of belonging that even a top restaurant doesn't," says Anil Agarwal, 42, CEO of a private company who frequents the Chandigarh Club's pool with his two daughters. With a backdrop of the Shivalik range, the picturesque club is bursting at its seams with 5,000 members-an increase of 2,000 in the past two years despite a fee hike from Rs 36,000 to Rs 61,000. "Only defaulters and deaths create vacancies," says Ravinder Chopra, club president.

"Earlier, clubbing was a sin. Now it is a status symbol." Sushil Jain, garment exporter, Ludhiana

As the membership profile changes, the clubs are going in for an image makeover as well. "Promoting family-centric ambience is now a top priority with the club managers," says Chopra. So from just being watering holes, the clubs have evolved into family recreation centres, offering cool ambience, quality cuisine and a basketful of leisure options at economical rates. "The club is now a virtual extension of your living room, where the family feels secure and relaxed," says Rohit Pahwa, 32, director of the Rs 400-crore Avon Cycle Group and a bowling alley freak at the Sutlej Club.

"The new club class is flush with money but is entertainment starved," says Ludhiana-based psychiatrist-cum-society watcher Rajiv Gupta. So a mélange of facilities range from all-weather swimming pools, air-conditioned, state-of-the-art gyms and multi-table billiard rooms to imported bowling alleys and sauna-jacuzzis. If the Chandigarh Club boasts of being the only club in the north with 20 tennis courts, the Sutlej Club's USP is its state-of-the-art bowling alley-imported from the US as part of a Rs 4 crore recreation complex-and a badminton court with a Rs 30 lakh "made in France" Taraflex surface. The bowling alley has been such a big draw that the club had to scrap the morning timings to discourage bunking by the school and college-going wards of members.

CLUBBING PLEASURE: With youth drawn to billiards, swimming and bowling the age profile of the club crowd has distinctly come down in the past few years

"The age profile of the club crowd has distinctly altered," says Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Anurag Agarwal, who is also ex-officio president of the Sutlej Club. The average age of the new entrants here in the past three years has been 30 years.

As clubs teem with cash-rich members, the top-notch companies are making a beeline for sponsoring the innumerable events that range from Valentine's Day celebrations to Karva Chauth. The sponsorship splurge-a pittance five years ago-now fetches the clubs in Ludhiana and Chandigarh close to Rs 2 crore every year. The clubs are also cashing in on the craze by raising their entry fee. Though cash and clout still count in acquiring a membership, the clubs have done away with discretionary powers on waiving or reducing the fee-a policy that helped the Sutlej Club turn the corner four years ago and has made it the richest club in north India today.

An increased cash flow has meant more leisure options and a high standard of cuisine virtually at dhaba rates. This in turn has added to the clubs' profile, facilitating their affiliations with prime clubs across India. The Sutlej Club is affiliated to 60 clubs in India and in London, Dubai and Shanghai. The new Mohali Club, in Chandigarh's suburbs, is angling for NRI members with a fee of US $2,500 (Rs 1.2 lakh). With its membership swelling to 600 within a year, the club aims to provide high-class accommodation, including transportation to and from the airport.

With memberships of city clubs at a premium and waiting lists continuing to lengthen, private country clubs are sprouting to cater to corporate honchos. "Ambience is the USP of these clubs," says Abhay Singh, owner of the Whispering Willows, a stay-in resort spread over three acres. The club is 13 km from Chandigarh and has executives of MNCs like Infosys Technologies Ltd and Ranbaxy among its clients.

For a people with a perennial zest for life, clubbing has clearly come of age. So even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh woos NRIs to set up casinos in the state, the entertainment-starved Generation Next is savouring its slice in the club pie.