PATNA: Though jail is one of the most unwanted places
anyone will be willing to go, but there has been a mad
scramble among the people to have a feel of jail ambience
and enjoy a variety of dishes inside jail-themed restaurants
that have mushroomed in various parts of Bihar and are
becoming a big hit.
At such a restaurant in Patna, the interiors comprise 10
airconditioned prison cells fitted with dining tables and
chairs. Diners willingly get handcuffed to feel the ambience
of a jail. From Gaya to Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur to Madhubani
and Patna to Ara, the food lovers have been seen making a
beeline for jail restaurants and savour foods inside.
“Although we hate going to jail, yet the people are visiting
such restaurants to have a feel of the jail environment with
luscious dishes available to suit their taste. I too fully enjoyed
my day in the company of my family,” said Prasonjit
Chakaraborty, a food-lover caught enjoying dishes at a jail
restaurant in Gaya. “What fascinated me is that you get
locked up in jail without committing any crime and are freed
once you clear the bill,” he added.
Rajiv Kumar Singh, another food lover, said although he
visited several eateries in Patna, his experience of having
chicken tandoori inside a jail restaurant under the dim light
gave him a different feel. “It amused me a lot when the ‘jailor’
himself came to know about my choice of foods as he shut
the heavy iron gate from outside,” Singh added.
Quite many jail restaurants even provide jail outfits to
waiters and staff to suit the environment while handcuffs
remain another prominent feature of such eateries. “We
have received tremendous response from the people in the
past one month. People want to ‘visit’ jail without
committing any crime and eat food of their choice,” a
restaurant manager, Naushad Alam, said. “There is a lot of
difference between real and reel life and the people are
coming here to feel such a situation,” he added.
Many visit jail-themed eateries for photoshoot’
Prasansha, manager of another such restaurant at Hajipur,
said people want to visit there not to end their monotony
but also for photoshoots and highlight their status in the
society. Psychologist Dr Binda Singh said people want to visit
jail-themed restaurants since they know this is not a jail.
“Actually, people know they are going to enjoy food in a jail
environment,” Dr Singh observed, adding “Reality me unhe
do din bhi pakadkar jail me rakh diya jai to haqiqat ka pata
chal jayega.” She explained that people want to enjoy
fantastic life and upload photographs of unique scenes to
social media to draw attention of their colleagues and
society.
Another psychologist, Dr Krishna Kumar Singh, said the
sudden rush in jail-like restaurants is just because of the fact
that the people know they will return after enjoying
moments in the company of others. “They are scrambling to
land in jail restaurants because they they are very much
aware of the fact that neither they face any charges nor
there remains chances of getting convicted and their visit is
all for fun,” explained Singh, who works with IGIMS in Patna.