Ami Shroff, Flair Bartender, On Creating A Space Of Her Own

Timeline Of The Video

0:00 – Introduction

1:00 – Choosing an unconventional career path

“…When I started, it was because it was a fun thing to do. It wasn’t because I had chosen it as a career. I didn’t plan it too much and entered it. My friend and I started doing it alongside the college and we got to travel and meet interesting people. It was all very fascinating.”

2:19 – Differentiating a bartender and a flair bartender

3:40 – Realising that bartending could be a career

5:37 – Parents’ response to the career path

8:15 – Influences in early career days

10:42 – Changes in the industry, over time

14:13 – Having a non-sexist crowd

“…It’s not about having men and women in the crowd. It’s about the crowd that isn’t sexist. It isn’t such a big deal to see a woman behind the bar or for a woman to drink alcohol. It’s easier to be among that crowd, I can relate to them.”

17:32 – Being queer

19:04 – Her sexuality influencing her career choice

22:18 – Practising discipline

25:35 – Goof ups at the bar

26:51 – Rapid Fire

27:10 – A significant moment in her life

“…Karate was a major life-changing experience of mine, as a child, I went through it. It was one of the physical activities I had encountered. It had trained me in terms of discipline, endurance, and pushing forward. Pain is good; that is what it taught me. It was the first time I manipulated objects. In karate, we learnt how to manipulate a stick; twirling it around. And there is a nunchaku, which is two sticks with a chain in the middle. Just learning these two objects was my introduction to object manipulation. The juggling arts, flair bartending, all of these are connected and I think karate is what started all this when I was 9 or 10 years old.”

28:18 – Thing she truly loves about bartending

28:46 – One underrated cocktail

29:36 – Five wardrobe staples

30:43 – Three Indian women who inspire her

33:05 – A message to the audience

“Just go for it, whatever you feel like doing it. Even if it is absurd, weird, impossible. The journey is the special part and not reaching the destination; the journey itself is exciting.”

Listen to the podcast here.

All images used are the sole property of Ami Shroff and cannot be used without prior permission.