New Delhi – yet another British – era law has been toppled like a drunk from a bar stool, in a change that gives women the freedom to make a living mixing the perfect cocktail.

In overturning a 1914 law that prohibited women from tending bar here in the capital, the supreme court of India this month recognized changing social mores in this country and gave Indian women access to one of the most lucrative jobs in the new economy.

Prosperity has resulted in the proliferation of trendy bars across urban India and, as upscale as some of them are, drinking in the mind of middle – class Indians is beginning to lose its air of prohibition and danger.
On any given night, in any fashionable barroom in big – city India, women can be seen drinking merrily, sometimes even without the company of men.

Alongside annual restaurant guides, there are now guides to bars. Time out magazine reviews bar in Mumbai and Delhi, which would not be such a big deal were it not in India, where until a generation ago, going out for a drink was considered the preserve either of the very rich, who could afford private clubs, or of the ne』er – do – well, venturing out to a rough saloon.

Indeed, a hotel management student named Aditi Soni, 20, said even her grandmother, a schoolteacher, had come around to the idea that working in a fancy hotel, with a fancy bar, was not such a bad idea for a woman.
A bartender, Ms. Soni has pointed out to her elders, can easily earn more than $1,000 a month, which is more than tripe the salary of a call center worker or that of a waitress at a high – end restaurant.

She had originally considered bartending as a career, but chose to study restaurant management instead after realizing that it was illegal in Delhi for a woman to tend bar. Ms. Soni said she was glad for the new opportunities.

「It』s lucrative, in the money sense and the fun sense,」 she said. 「It』s very happening. It』s an action – packed job.」
And yet, the stir over who can work as a bartender signals an abiding ambivalence over the subject of alcohol – and women serving it. Each of India』s 29 states has its own laws governing the sale of alcohol, ad many restrict women working behind the bar.

For Anushika Pradhan, 25, who came to Delhi a few years ago from a small northeastern city called Gangtok, the ruling meant finally coming out of the shadows. For nearly six months, while working as a hostess at a five – stars hotel coffee shop, she had been learning the craft in secret downstairs at a pub called Dublin.

The day after the court ruling, Ms. Pradhan was behind the bar, tugging at the beer tap, fixing whiskey and sodas and smiling for all those who recognized her. She had been anointed by news media the capital』s first female bartender.

「Hey you were on TV!」 one man exclaimed. Another, inebriated, tried to lean over the bar a few tomes before security guards urged him along to his room.

One of the waiters called Ms. Pradhan and returned a cosmopolitan that she had just made. 「Too string,」 was the customer』s verdict. Ms. Pradhan looked confused.
「Too strong?」 she asked, and added a dash of soda.