om Cruise made bartending look cool in Cocktail. Hrithik Roshan [Images] flipped a bottle and made it a cool way to tend a bar in India.

Now, bottle flipping and juggling glasses is fast emerging as a career choice with the increase in demand for bartenders.

This 'high spirited' vocation was not considered a very civilised profession until recently.

"Bartending was looked down as a career choice. But with the pub and cocktail culture picking up, bartenders are in demand and it is picking up as a career among the youth," says Sandeep Verma, who runs the Institute of Bar Operations and Management, a training institute for bartenders.

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"Catering college students, bar designers, bar managers, even housewives, are interesting in bartending. The course varies from three to six months. And a bartender can start with a five-figure salary in any reputed bar or hotel," he says.

"It is a highly paid job and now commands respect. Though it is still a male domain," he says.

"Besides big metros, places like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune are becoming pub cities, thus increasing the demand for
professional bartenders. Delhi alone needs around 300 new bartenders every year," says Verma.

Verma says there are very few institutions that provide specialised bartending courses.

Nischal Gurung, who runs Cocktails and Dreams School of Bar and Beverage Management, a bartending school, says, "The demand for bartenders has picked up trememdously in the last two years, much more than what is available in the market."

"Earlier, any waiter was trained to work as a bartender by hotels and pubs. But these days, it has become a specialised field and involves more than just making the drinks," says Gurung.

"A bartender mixes hot delights, cocktails and mocktails, relinquishes your desire, and transports your spirits to the height of benign pleasure," says Verma.

"Bartending is an art, a highly professional job where the person should know all about juices, wines, herbs, roots, etc, which are used in making cocktails.

"Besides those who want to be professional bartenders, many corporates send their staff for this course to train them in wining and dining etiquette and mixing drinks," says Verma.

Also, there is lot of interest in amateur bartending, especially among the socialites and warn to learn everything about making cocktails, says Gurung.

Until two years ago, there were hardly any women in the field, but the numbers are now increasing.