From golf clubs to sports clubs to night clubs, this city has them all. Now with all the dance bars around, topless is no big deal. Today, clubs are located in fancy 5 star places, and you do all the topless dancing.

In Mumbai, however, clubs are those exclusive spaces with restricted entry and unaffordable membership, as well as a waiting list running for decades, or where membership is just plain closed. Willingdon Club, US Club, Bombay Gym, WIAA, NSCI, Breach Candy and CCI are harder to crash than the Billionaire's Club, some like the Catholic, Hindu and Islam Gymkhanas are of the old mold, spit and polish territories that observe dress codes but are easier to gain entry to, and then there are the new clubs.

They're rich, they're flashy, they are not old world, but they are mighty interesting. They offer time shares, flat screen televisions if you join, and they usually have plenty of facilities. And they have names like The Club, Country Club etc., with swimming pools and tennis and squash and DJ nites.

Finally, in the gullies of downtown Mumbai, you will come across the phenomenon of village clubs, originating from Goa, where people from one village can crash when they come to Mumbai for a day, a month or a year, on a small payment. But few people think of these now when you say "Club".