Drinking with Mermaids on the Virgin Beaches@Vinod73

We all drink. Some secretly, many brazenly & most of us casually. Well, here is my take on an important aspect of drinking!

NOT FUNNY DRINKING

Have a drink! Let us meet for a drink. Come over for a drink. Well, the central idea around drinking was always to meet, down a few, let go & generally have a good time with friends. After inspiring thoughts, sentimental talk & general revelry, came the hangover. You created memories of a lifetime. Memories to be recounted & narrated with vast exaggeration amongst friends.

DRINKING WAS FUN. Alas, not so much any longer.

Come the so-called Market Economy. Its wizards smelled the opportunity. Except it was a real smell & they understood its depth. Not the fake expert nod you give when smelling an atrociously expensive wine in a five-star.

They started creating rituals around drinking. Brands were built. Stories created to crowd your Mind-space & cloud your thinking.

Drinking was a spontaneous act. But no, now they tell you, no, no, you are doing it all wrong. The idea became to intimidate you & profit from your anxieties.

They tell you how to drink — in which glass, which lute, what size, what shape & even the weight of the glass for each drink comes recommended.

Some pseudo-science, like let the “Wine breathe”, “Let the malts open up its finer notes”, “Smell the earthiness” & a whole lot of crap has been implanted in your head.

Even though the robust couldn’t care less type, whiskey guzzlers started talking of the finer distinction between “Peaty” vs. “The Smoky Malts”.

Scotch, a proud possession of the 70s & 80s households, became passe.

Earlier 18-year-olds were young ladies & and 32-year-olds were women. Now, no longer.

One may ask, what kind of person will keep whiskey for 32 years? A very shopkeeper type, or perhaps a sad type who, in any case, is not capable of enjoying. If it were your friend who stored whiskey for 32 years, you would find him weird & call him a “Kameena” type.

Categories were created! Sophistication was implied. 3 yrs, 12 yrs, 18 yrs, Peaty, Smokey, Canadian, Irish, Japanese Singles, American Rye, Bourbons, & what have you got created.

Status was accorded. You were to be judged accordingly.

Soda with Malt showed you are not quite there, while a touch of water is OK & no water is the “Real Thing!”

Now, who made these rules? Even God Bacchus is wondering. The marketers & the large liquor industry with truckloads of marketing budgets are the new gods of the supposed “Good Times.”

No matter how much we pretend, the Tests suggest statistically that the majority have always failed in identifying a Good 30 Dollar Wine from a 3000 3,000-dollar wine.

After a drink, no matter how loud our claims, we can not distinguish between a 12-year and an 18-year Glen. But such is our frailty, we do not accept data when it challenges our vanity.

We go to a fancy bar, the wine is presented with the label & vintage up, held by the trained Sommelier resting on the napkin, which in turn rests on his arm. We see the wine, smell it over our smog-infested Delhi-Mumbai noses, twirl it & nod knowledgably to the guy in the bar, giving him the general green nod to pour away. Wonder what the guy who has in his career poured it to thousands of jokers like us by now is thinking. Maybe,” Saale, yeh wine ko glass mein Ghumane, soonghne ka drama Chhor, we know your types.”

We grew up hearing, Each to his own poison. We all chose how to drink ours. With water, soda, Coca-Cola, & tonic & my personal favourite occasionally is Red Wine with a dash of “Fanta.” Yes, you read it right. And you should try it!

Spontaneity today has been murdered by hyper-branding & hyper ritualisation. Isn’t it high time that the real purpose of drinking is restored?

• Sahi pakade hein na! 😜 _Cheers !*_
• 🍷🍹🍾🥂🍻🥃🍸🍷🍹🍾🥂🍻