This is being written under duress. I am almost being held at gun point and asked to write a
corollary to the food blog I wrote some time back. Some friends now want a "booze blog" from me. The whole idea falls flat because I do not drink alcohol as a rule. Me having a drink is more of an abberation. Oh, I have no moral justifications for or against drinking. It is just that I have never enjoyed it. As long as I am not being asked to partake the
liquor, and am not being forced in any way, I am fine with "boozing". Just let me be. That is the bottom line.
However since I have to post this blog on
liquor, I have just realised that most of my encounters with liquor or alcohol has been very funny.
One of my earliest memories about liquor is making Bobby & Shoky , our neighbours at 26, Pataliputra Colony, Patna, down some whisky. We were barely 10 years old. I (as the hostess), supplied the Johnny Walker from Dad's cache. We locked ourselves in the guest room. Vikram and Shantum held Bobby and Shoky down on the floor. I remember Vikram kept a cricket bat handy...in anticipation. I poured the whisky down Shoky's throat. There was a huge fight. In the process we broke the damn crystal tumbler. Spilt a great deal of whisky. The room stank of whisky. Dad threatened "I'll talk to you tonight". Premo Uncle threatened to strap Vikram. We all got severely punished, and Bobby and Shoky got away scot-free......almost in glory !!!!
Not to be beaten, the very next weekend we tried the same thing on my sister. With beer this time. She in turn bit me. Real hard. I howled. Mum came in, so did Lila masi. So did our fathers. All hell was let lose. We called it a day !
A more pleasant memory would be drinking Campari in the rain in the Piazza San Marco. It was a wet cold evening and I was homesick. I frequently am. Venice has never been my favourite city, but that evening in Venice with two complete strangers...Olga and Pier.......stand out in my memory. We started with being strangers, shared some cheap Chianti. Decided to graduate to better stuff, since we could tolerate each others company. We drank the night away (me with half a glass of Campari) and remained friends forever. Somehow, I never have been able to drink Campari ever again. Not without Olga and Pier.
For a while we lived at Sheldon House. One very warm summer afternoon, while playing Monopoly (where Raju always cheated and robbed our currency) we decided to get Devika "drunk" . I don't rightly remember whose idea it was. Possibly Rajus. And mine. We powdered an aspirin tablet. Mixed it with Coca Cola (also a little bit of rum from Mr. Menon's stock) . Devika gulped it down. Then she started laughing. She laughed and she laughed and she laughed. So did we all....Viju, Raju, Anu and me. And of course Devika.The heady elixir was actually quite dangerous, and we were all drunk anyway.....on the spirit of the adventure. In hindsight it was a mighty risky joke we played. This remains my very best duping episode. And I was drunk on the laughter factor, anyway.
More recently in a ever-so-dull puja break at the AVS, Shantam and I went down to Khelmati on an expedition. We waded through mud and slush on a 20 minute downhill trek, and found a drenched woman selling "
lau-paani"........local country liquor. I bought a dirty glass full for 10 bucks. Shantam turned up his nose.......I ventured a sip. It was fiery, lethal. Came straight out of a Chem. Lab. There was no way I was going to drink it. We threw it away, much to the sellers chagrin. She cursed us soundly and roundly. The funny part of the incident was that after we came home and got ourselves dry, and sat with hot Bournvita, Shantam started laughing. So did I. We laughed for no apparent reason till we finished our Bournvita. And more afterwards. Mind you, I took just one sip....Shantam none at all. Potent stuff
lau-paani, what ????. Shantam and I always shared this secret
lau-paani joke when the topic came around to alcohol.
I wonder if Rosy Pelican is still in the market. My first introduction to Rosy Pelican was very unfortunate indeed. We were in Sikkim, and since no other beer was available Sanjoy decided to try Rosy Pelican. Here it must be told that Sanjoy is the only man I know who gets severe hiccups on beer. He insisted on the Rosy Pelican. Half a glass, no more. And after a hard days trek, I had to keep awake the whole night, because Sanjoy went "Hic"..... "Hic" ....and yet more "Hic" all the night through. The guy obviously does not learn a lesson, because another Rosy Pelican, this time in Himachal Pradesh had the same devastating effect on Sanjoy. Next morning we could not come down to Kalka, and therefore missed the train. All because of Rosy Pelican and Sanjoy.
Someone commented on my blog on food, and said they did not like The Gun in London. To me, The Gun serves the best pub-food in London. Terrific ambience and the best English beer. It is an old pub, and serves (so to say) Ye Olde English Beer. A pint costs less than a pound. England is one place where I have always enjoyed my drink. England has a quiet and laid back attitude where you may or may not drink. The take is yours. There is a small pub in Exeter (The Three Crowns) where the beer is excellent and the bar-keeper cum owner, 'even more excellent' !!!!!. An Irishman by birth, and holds a British passport. Mallory is his name. Visit him sometime. Raise a pint to this amazing guy.
Another London pub I have always liked is The Coach and Horse ( I think that is the name). Near Lincoln Inn. One would expect the usual legal crowd and the legal jargon, but the beer is good nevertheless. The thing about English pubs is that it it not about just drinks. It is food, socialising, beer everything combined in a very quiet and dignified way.
The Sitwell pub and The Eagle (both on the Cam) are places where the brew is good. Very good.They permit you to take your drink out to the punt and it is a different worls altogether. Cambridge has been making their own brew for centuries. The distintive malty flavour and the slightly bitter taste sets apart the Cambridge brew. Greene King is the brewer. I love the Cambridge beer.
The search (read eternal search) for local or/and country liquor has landed me into trouble many a times. Notwithstanding such impediments, the search for Mohua liquor has been most successful. In the Netarhat Hills, in Ranchi, in Shantiniketan, in the Baghmundi Hills the local Santhal population brew their
haaria (very bad) and
mohua. Mohua is made from small yellow flowers of the same name. Slightly sweet, but very heady indeed. I have had mohua off and on for the last 35 years, and have always enjoyed it. Different parts of the Chotanagpur Hills make different brews.......each distinctive. May be the UB Group or Sula should pay attention.
Living in Calcutta, I cannot ignore
taari and
cholai. I do not know anything about them, except that I will not experiment with these.
The Indian market has recently come up with a lot of good wines. Sula is particularly good. Last year on my birthday Sajani brought down a few bottles and we had a good party with Adam and Kartik (it was also Kartik's birthday) While we are on the subject of Sula, I have to tell this story. Shantam carried back two bottles of Sula wine from Nasik (Sajani). One for Mrs. Joseph and the other for someone else. He spent the night at Bombay with Sangram. One bottle of wine was shared. He phoned late in the night to say he had a splitting head-ache. Next morning, when I called, he said it was the worst hangover he had ever had. He fairly and squarely blamed Sula and Sajani. !!!!!
France. Yes. I will write about France and wine. All my trips to Paris. All my walking trips to Nice and Bretagne and Lyons etc. All the wines I tasted there. Somehow, it may be too long a chapter. Let's put it this way. Evion water is more expensive. French wine, even the slightly sour cheaper wines are good. French cuisine is excellent. More so when washed down with a wine. Does not have to be champagne. A local white wine can be pretty good too.
Oh yes, the only time I have been thanked for a bottle of wine was about two years back, when someone sent me a text message. Person must have been drunk(not possible) or was just too moved (highly possible). Nevertheless, I was touched too. Not by Bacchus......the text message and the lines. I will always associate champagne ( M&C) with this text message. With this person.
Rum and Coke at The Cellar (Delhi) and Shandy at The Pink Elephant is greatly missed by many of us. Rum and Coke was the staple drink. Our financial resources were ever so limited. In Calcutta, The Olympia (The Oly Pub now) did a good smoked hilsa with the usual beer or whatever be the preferred booze. Dad used to get smoked hilsa back from Olympia. I used to go there sometimes with Kevin and my Anglo-Indian friends. Not too often. It weas too smoky. Shantam once brought back chicken cutlets in a Oly Pub box !!
When I was young, and also much later Saturday Club was the watering hole I frequented. Brian Conway did not like it one bit. (Maybe I was underage). C N Chatterjee frowned. Dad was always in the know. Backed me up all the time. Whether it was in the Lighthorse Bar or on the Verandah.......I had a whale of a time. Always a pint bottle shared. Nothing more. Dad's orders.
There is this story that does the rounds in our family. Sanat Chatterjee, my uncle, is thoroughly disliked by all of us. Ranjan Banerjee, my brother-in-law, is very well liked. Once Ranjan (from Canada) visited Sanat Chatterjee at his Delhi residence. The host, the miser that he is, declared "What will you have, Raanjaan? A single malt or some Nepalese whisky I have just got? Let's try the Nepalese whisky, shall we?" Ranjan, being the gentleman that he is, agreed. The next day he was very ill. And was pretty ill for the next few days. Wicked of Sanat Chatterjee to offer such a choice.
Talking of Nepalese whisky, I got quite ill on
paan liqueur made in Sikkim. It tasted fine. A bit like
zarda . Somehow, it did not agree with me. I liked a cherry brandy from Himachal, though. A bit sweet, but nice. And I do like Grand Marnier. Once again, please do not compare GM with the Sikkimese liqueur !!!! There is only one Sanat Chatterjee !!!
Sweden and Finland are obsessed with booze and boozing. It is almost a national past time. The amount of Vodka the Scandenavians can guzzle is amazing. However, as long as they leave me out of the binge, it's fine by me. I don't grudge them their Vodka or whatever alcohol be their choice.
To end it all. I do enjoy a single malt. Less than half a peg. May be once a year. Perhaps an even longer gap. JW Gold Label with Opu was enjoyable. Two sips. Opu finished the rest. A sip from Dads Vat 69 at age 15 is memorable. A Glenfiddich with one Scot in Paris (he had carried in his own bottle) was good. The guy ......a 70 year old Professor.....said he never drinks water. At all.
Long enough blog. I have left out many incidents. Univ days and all when the boys got royally drunk. The time when the ONGC guys and Sanjoy shared some Russian Vodka. Lots of stories.
One thing I should mention here is that I have never found civilised drinking in civilised society a problem. I am not uncomfortable in an English pub whether with orange juice or beer. Paris bistros are fine with me. I like and enjoy French wine. It is the "
daaru-shaaru" and "
party-sharty" culture of North India that irks me terribly. And I notice this to be a very common practice. Drink like 'tomorrow never comes'. Behave in a gross fashion. Very common in most parts of India. Any age group. Let us not blame the student population only.
Dignity if foresaken, calls for criticism.
