Liked this post by Mayank immensely. Esp. the way it is written with satire and wit.
Have copied it inline to make for easier reading. The original is available
here....
The whole sentiment of why a MNS youth or a Ram Sena youth is violent and anti-social is effectively conveyed in this article, in that sense it is fairly scathing.
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India's own pub culture
It exists in our bars, where men down one whiskey after another in the dim light of bulbs, with morose music in the background, but no one feels the need to socialise
Quite likely, you haven’t been to a bar in Patna. Most locals haven’t. Mayur used to be a popular one; Amrapali is better. Fried peanuts are the free snack of choice. Light-bulbs that hang low from the ceiling are so dim, you can barely tell the person opposite you, let alone the table beside.
This is where boys and men sip double Aristocrat Premiums or Officer’s Choice one after another, between heavy drags of chhota Gold’s Flake. On a light day, a beer would mean an eight per cent alcohol Guru or Thunderbolt or now, the Kingfisher Strong, reputably mixed with whiskey again.
You’d be the luckiest ever to find for yourself the rare ‘ledger’, or what the ‘western world’ prefers for a regular lager. It’s usually available at one or two hotel bars, often for weakling tourists who don’t understand the idea of drinking.The point is to get drunk immaculate. No one socialises at Mayur. The mood is hushed.
They sit quiet and merely stretch their hands to the glass to gulp or pour another drink. Everyone is on their own high. Too much talk could disturb precious self-esteem. It bears the risk of an argument and a brawl at the end of the night.
The music is often depressing notes of unrequited love, or verses in praise of a woman’s eyes. It isn’t that alcohol doesn’t make Suresh, sitting in the corner, move. He dances, but only at weddings, where men gyrate against men because one of their friends is finally getting married. Suresh’s turn will come soon as well, and without him having to do much for it.
Wooing a girl is a social hassle. Good girls stay among good girls; and men will be men. Never the two must mix. Families prefer it this way. Over time, a frustrated Suresh anyway turns out as someone you would never trust your unmarried daughter with.
Parents will find for him a girl, once Suresh finds himself a job. Religion and caste will protect this wonderful arrangement of class. If Suresh gets lucky with neither a job nor, therefore, a girl, which is relatively rare, there is always dadagiri and street-activism to express his failure on others, and pass his judgement to the unfair world.
Politicians love such a Suresh. He gives them strength on the street.If he is brought up better and too sane to be violent, he’s more likely to be drinking quiet at his den, Mayur. February 14 isn’t still a date he marks excitedly on his calendar as Valentine’s Day. A boy holding a girl’s hand is for Suresh a moment of severe envy and deep resentment. He can’t stand those lost in love. He can barely fathom the fun they have at an afternoon disco, that too dancing. He cannot have it. He’d rather have them shut down. There was one in Patna. It did shut down.
Mayur, the bar, closes early. No one complains. It doesn’t take too long to get trashed over 8 quick double shots of Officer’s Choice. Everyone eventually stagger out; eyes blood-red; off to the nearest paan shop to kill the bad breath. You wouldn’t want your sister or girlfriend near that bar; ideally nowhere close to that paan-shop. She’ll be cat-called and stared at, until she is uncomfortable enough to leave.
‘Respected’ people get sozzled at home, ideally on the terrace, under the moonlight, over aggressive business conversations. Women, the wives, have been trained by tradition to serve soda and fresh pakodas on a floral plastic tray, before late dinner, and a drunken husband in bed.
Whether Malegaon or Mangalore, it’s no different. This is India’s pub culture. We must fear a western influence to this lovely world. It suits some.
• When he is not busy being world weary, Mayank Shekhar writes on movies
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