Saturday, May 3, 2014

Broken Bottles and closed avenues (discourse kerala politics and policies)


In case, just in case the powers that be have access to the internet, I hope they see the real picture behind the thick wall of idealism they hide and venture forth to speed up a decision......



Liquor has been a part of Malayalees life and celebrations for a very very long time. We celebrate with high spirit, we share our sadness with a tinkling glass and we chase away boredom when along with our buddies, we cheer away the evils of mundane.



A watering hole is not a place of pouring a drink, gulping it down in haste and tottering away to fall somewhere on the road and sleep off amid one's own vomit - No sir no. It is a depiction of hell for most of us Malayalees. What we want is to sit in a room where the aroma of Double fried beef tickles our nostrils, the tinkling of ice cubes and the noisy effervescence of soda being poured into glasses adding to the nostalgia evoking beats of an old malayalam movie song, Friendly banter around the table built camaraderie and business deals aplenty.



Now take a look at the current scenario, 418 out of a total of 708 bars in Kerala were closed down over a month back stating poor hygiene. The decision was to keep only those with three stars and above opened to serve liquor. WHAT ? What about the general populace who cannot afford to go to a bar and have a drink? What about the 70 odd bars which were given two star certification by the government after paying huge amounts ?


Mary Antoinette would smirk and say “I told you so”, as our leaders proclaim – Go to BEVCO, the government run (Monopolized) retail liquor outlets and buy your tipple. These retail outlets occupy obscure places in God’s own country where the sun doesn’t shine, in ramshackle setups which puts to shame the addas of goondas we see in C grade movies. One has to stand in a long line – hours sometimes jostling the different strata of society and being one among the many, a truly communist experience mind you. Till the opportunist in the crowd cuts the line and begs the person in the front of the line to buy a bottle for him too as the matter is most urgent. Then there are the aggressors – usually six and a half foot and above with a girth that would put an elephant to shame, who cut the line and stand before you. If you dare to squeak, the answer will be a stare. I never went beyond the squeak. This is what the average Malayalee has to go through to get his hands on a bottle. You fight these elements and the never ending queue, finish watching a full length movie on your Smartphone while awaiting your turn and when your turn comes, you are greeted with Sorry, that is not available or worse – It is 9 PM and its gates closing time. Suppose you get your hands on a bottle at this hour, And then what Sir? Then what? Should we go hide behind bushes, filthy toilets and in the dark shades of in between alleys to have what we paid good money for? Good money this is too for the exchequer as the last five years sales figures was a humongous 26,887 CRORES !!!! (Statistics courtesy TOI) 


Who says we do not want to unwind after a week of labor? The church? They serve wine to little children inside the church for heaven’s sake !!! The politicians? they have umpteen bars of their own !! Let me not go into the details of minister owned third rate bars opened up and serving liquor when two star bar hotels and in some cases three star bar hotels are closed down – all in the name of law.

Do you really think you will ever come back to power if you keep dragging your legs like this? Why would I vote you back to power if a decision takes you all more than a month to execute? If your party is split to one man and the rest of the party and the dictums of this one person is holding back a decision that affects an entire state, tens of thousands of jobs, crores in revenue and cause general anguish to the common man as stated above, Sir, what good are you and the party?


Signing off, as I have to go and stand in a queue for the next two hours.



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