BUSINESS MONITOR
Booze and business go together. Uncorking champagne is a ritual for winning a major contract in the corporate world. Or even the opening of a new office. Unwinding in the maddening financial world with the choice of one’s poison is no rarity at the end of the day. The weekends are party days. Agree?
“Bankers can spot marsh birds and stray dogs, but they will struggle to find takeaway coffee. Nor can they easily seal a deal over a drink in a fancy bar: Gift may be an offshore tax haven, but it is in a dry state. The absence of nightlife is “the elephant in the room,” Chloe Cornish quotes in her Saturday (6 August 2022) column in the Financial Times, London.
Spot on.
Two days ago, “Work Hard, Party Harder”, cooed Pirojshaw Sarkari of Gati Limited, one of the publicly-listed Indian logistics enterprises, through a LinkedIn post with a group photo of himself along with colleagues at a high-end resort. I won’t be surprised if they had not boozed and shook their legs and bodies to celebrate whatever they were celebrating.
Well, Cornish passingly talks about the absence of a fancy bar in Gujarat where the global financial giant JPMorgan opened its office at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). For Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is a dream project envisioned when he was the chief minister of Gujarat 20 years ago. Now, GIFT is operational with several financial leaders grabbing space in this prestigious location which Modi wants to be as good as Singapore as the global financial hub.
The Gujarat example
Let’s return to the state of Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, where liquor consumption is banned. Prohibition is in place. Not that you can’t have access to liquor. Get a medical certificate from the physician recommending the intake of liquor in moderate quantity is necessary for “your survival”. A big joke. Can’t such certificates can be had for a few dollars/Indian Rupees? After all, everything has a price tag?
I have been traveling through Gujarat highways for more than a decade, and frequently at that. Never once was I denied the opportunity to imbibe my single malt. Yes, there is Prohibition. Five stars are exempted. But not everyone can afford their exorbitant pricing.
Mind you, Gujaratis are successful entrepreneurs. They know the business tricks. So, liquor flows, Prohibition or no Prohibition. Not to be forgotten is the presence of Army canteens in the state where the cheapest liquor of world stuff is proffered to the Armed Forces — serving and ex-servicemen.
An incident
Several years ago, there was a knock on my hotel room around nine in the night in the Ambani-Adani land. On opening, a teenager rushed in, muttering some acquaintance’s name, dropped a bag, and dashed out. It was two bottles of Black Label.
Earlier in the day, my colleague casually mentioned his liquor preferences. “No problem. Your wish will be fulfilled,” promised our business friend. The teenager with a double Black Label was the outcome of that conversation.
Though the notice board in the hotel lobby and rooms display “alcohol consumption is prohibited,” hoteliers turn Nelson’s eye. The service of bubbly carbonated cold soda and snacks to accompany the liquor with a big bucket of ice cubes and the right size glassware dispatched to the room diligently is a big business for hoteliers to miss.
Another episode. Traveling from Delhi to Rajkot by road, a friend narrated his experience. Before entering Gujarat from the Rajasthan side, he picked up a few crates of his choicest alcoholic items, hid them, and drove undetected into Gujarat. However, on the next trip, he ran into a roadblock.
At the Gujarat border, the excise department squad stopped his vehicle with Delhi registration to check the illegal liquor movement. The squad got the passengers out of the vehicle and began their search. They could find nothing in the cabin.
One of my friend’s co-passengers was a journalist who detested such detention and stopped them from checking the boot. “Why suspect us, just because we are coming from Delhi?” was his line of argument. By the by, he has completely forgotten his boot had a few bottles. His colleagues were in a quandary. What if they get caught?
Journo throws names
The journalist started throwing names in the Gujarat bureaucracy. The checking duo called in their supervisor. The argument continued in the same vein. The supervisor went a step ahead to proclaim that “journalists are not super humans. They drink too. They smuggle too!”
Ultimately, the search was abandoned, and the vehicle was permitted to proceed. Once out of the squad’s sight, the rest bounced on the journalist for his “stupidity.” That was when he became aware of his foolhardiness.
Forget Gujarat. During my six-year stay in the Persian Gulf, particularly in Muscat, Oman, another strict country about liquor consumption, we used to have weekend parties with liquor flowing fine. Of course, they were bought at a premium. Did I not say everything has a price tag?
One more episode to cap this booze topic. During the 2021 trip to Gujarat, one of our friends wanted to take the legal route. Visitors can get a temporary licence to buy and consume liquor in Gujarat. Before leaving Delhi, the necessary forms were filled out online and submitted. Around Friday noon, the visit to the concerned liquor permit officer began. Half an hour before the government offices shut for the weekend, he met the officer.
Still, the mission failed because the application form had some critical input missing. So what? The official permit route did not deprive the alternate avenue. He had a blast with the bubbly that evening.
Also by the same author: No to imported single malt: Under these trying circumstances, ’tis tough to be upbeat – THE NEWS PORTER
The author is a seasoned business and economic journalist. He can be reached at konsultramesh@gmail.com. In this column, ‘Business Monitor’, he presents a global perspective on happenings in the world of business, commerce, economics and trade. The views are the author’s own and The News Porter bears no responsibility for the same.
