he Supreme Court has spoken and liquor outlet owners are seething with anger. There was a flicker of hope when the former advocate general advised that hotels, bars and restaurants were not covered by the court order. Everybody was pleased and nobody, not even the politicians, newly elected MLAs or the newly formed government thought an intervention in the court was necessary. On March 31, the apex court came down like a tonne of bricks. There was some relief, but not enough. Now that the truth has finally sunk in, there will be gnashing of teeth and beating of chests. Many families will find themselves without a livelihood and nothing can be worse than that, unless you consider ‘2012’ a possibility.
This might be the right time to drown one’s sorrows with a bottle of whiskey or five shots of vodka, or any combination that suits you, but having one for the road is out of the question.
Goa and liquor are synonymous, so when someone tells us where we can establish a bar without consulting us, it calls for an agitation. There are a lot of things in this state that divide us. For instance, we are divided on language and script and statehood was granted to us on the basis of two languages, not one. We are divided on regional plans. We can’t see eye-to-eye on coconut trees. We can’t make up our minds on how many airports the state needs. We elect one political party and another one forms the government. Some of us detest the Portuguese, others line up in front of the Portuguese consulate to get new identities and a passport to Swindon. Basically, we are a bunch of contradictions. But the one thing that unites us is liquor. And we believe that there is no problem too difficult or too big that it cannot be settled over a glass of urrack. The only downside of this approach to problem-solving is that after four glasses of urrack both parties tend to forget the solution and after five glasses they forget the problem. Both then attempt to drive home with alcohol sloshing around in the top story, and this is what the Supreme Court wants to stop.
The court does not have any objection as to how we resolve our problems, what is wants to put an end to is the ease with which we drink and drive. And it’s not just us. The court is of the view that drivers in the rest of India are no better. As a result, a large number of fatal accidents occur and the only way to stop this is by taking away easy access to liquor outlets. It would have been more effective if the court had taken away all the vehicles but kept the liquor outlets. But that would have upset the automobile industry.
Court orders tend to be tedious and are written in a technical style that would, in the normal course, send anyone down the slippery slope to alcoholism. But if you have read the order without frequent sips from a glass of urrack or occasional trips to the bathroom, and if you were able to comprehend the meaning of it, you will notice that we are all goners. Drinking just got harder and we will be the worse for it.
