By day, he is a self-employed graphics designer; he specialises in wedding cards. At a moment’s notice, he gets into sports gear and heads to a nearby gym where he is a trainer. But by 7 every evening, Vivek Kumar is at Copper Club, Chandigarh, even before the doors open and stays put until after most partygoers have collapsed in bed.

Meet Mr Kumar, the bouncer. It pays to make friends with the red entry-rope guy; he can let you and your unruly bunch of friends in and if there’s a drink to be had after closing time, you know who to tap. Besides, it’s a close fraternity, if you know one, you have the key to other clubs as well.

“If there was ever a job to have, it is working in a nightclub,” says Kumar, who has been working as a bouncer for two years now. “It’s a wild and crazy job and teaches you hell of a lot of things…I guess my looks got me here,” he finally smiles.

But when he says looks, he’s not thinking of John Abraham. He means his 6-ft-4-inch frame. And past the physique, what’s the job profile? Kumar is prompt: “It is an on-the-house job. I have learnt from fellow bouncers.”

There’s Kumar’s fellow bouncer and “guru” Tushar Grover who is given to a little more romanticism. And dark humour. “It is an enigma why people become bouncers. Some do it for money and some because it’s a good excuse to knock heads,” he says.

... contd.