Temper Your Tantrum

Rage rooms are a roaring success. But are they making anger management issues better or worse? We examine the issue calmly

- Tanisha Saxena

Feeling angry at the moment? Perhaps it's the heat, or the frustration of daily Zoom meetings that should have been emails. Maybe it's an in-law who knows which buttons to press. Or maybe it's 2023 and the grapes of wrath can no longer be ignored.

It's probably why rage rooms have become so popular. The idea is simple: A room is filled with everyday objects - ceramics, glass, furniture, gadgets, electronics. Customers suit up in safety gear (helmet, gloves, face shield, jumpsuit) and use hammers, rods and other tools to break and smash the objects, letting off some steam. Forget store signs that say, "You break it, you bought it". At these establishments, you bought it precisely to break it.

Indians have been going on smashing sprees ever since the country's first rage room, the delightfully named Café Bhadaas, opened in Indore in 2017.