Tying One On Bacchus

You Don’t Have To Wait Till 25 To…

• 18 Drive a car
• 18 Cast your vote
• 161/2 Get into National Defence Academy
• 18 Own a home
• 18(F) 21(M) Get married
• 18 Get a credit card
• 21 Adopt a child
• 21 Own a gun
• 18 Train to fly a plane

***

n Mumbai, those who fall into the under-25 crowd are slightly shaken and, yes, a little stirred. They can’t order a drink in a bar any more. Like it happens, or at least is supposed to happen, in Delhi. The drinking age in our country is stiff in some states, frothy in others. If you are partying in Goa or have snuck into a watering hole in Gurgaon, you can drink every alcohol under the sun (or moon) as soon as you’re 18. In Delhi and now in Mumbai, you have to wait seven more years to imbibe hard liquor. But you can have a beer after 18 and there is no clear age limit for wine.

“They have said that anything above 8 per cent (alcohol by volume) is hard liquor and that includes all wines too. So, technically, you can only have beer if you are under 25,” reasons Shatbhi Basu, a mixologist. There is still more confusion about who can drink what. “I have read about this law only in the newspapers, but the authorities have not come to tell us what the new law is. We already have a board outside our pub that says ‘Under 21 not allowed’. Should we update that sign?” wonders Lajju Bhatia of Toto’s, one of Mumbai’s oldest pubs. Plus, how will a waiter keep tabs on what each person is drinking at a table with a mixed age group?

The Maharashtra government’s rationale is that it “wants to ban the sale of illegal alcohol as deaths are reported after its consumption”. Rohan Joshi, stand-up comedian, writer and tippler, says that this is like “having the deer in your sights and swaying to hit the trees”. “Crack down on the illegal distilleries that are causing alcohol-related deaths. What purpose will a higher drinking age serve in curbing illegal alcohol deaths?” he asks. At 28, Joshi isn’t as perturbed as some of his friends under 25 are, but he says that even they are “angry at an academic level only”. “Who is going to give up drinking just because the age limit has gone up?”. Shazahn Padamsee, 23, actress and daughter of adman Alyque Padamsee, concurs: “I work and make my own money, so I should be allowed to spend it the way I want to.” She adds that even though she is a “very occasional” drinker, she still feels it is unfair that she can’t get a drink to celebrate her next two birthdays. Alyque is even more forthright: “If you are worried about drunk driving, what about the people above 25 who crash their cars after a night out? Raise the limit to 45? 60? It is not a question of drinking. It is about driving after downing a few.” The acid test, Ira Dubey, 26, actress and TV anchor, argues is the “actual enforcement of a clear law”. She says there is no clarity about alcohol laws in India and so the loopholes are routinely exploited. “They should bring some uniformity in. Just fix one drinking age for the entire country and then enforce it strictly. Right now, everyone takes the drinking age pretty lightly.”

“Absolutely true,” says bartender Priyanka Kanwalkar. She has often served customers who were even below 21 because the “pub owners and even the cops don’t really care”. Ajit Balgi of drinks portal Tulleeho.com has seen kids as young as 16 drinking at plush bars and nightclubs in the city. Tulleeho.com has workshops for corporates and individuals on how to mix and serve drinks and Ajit sees professionals under 25 attend their classes to learn how to impress their bosses or clients. “The government should realise that a lot of people between the ages of 21 and 25 are already working, are probably married and are taking some pretty important decisions in their lives. How can you tell them not to drink if they want to?”

Most people are more upset by the arbitrary manner in which the state government has suddenly decided to put in measures to police young adults. This is what has prompted actor Imran Khan, 28, the current celebrity poster boy for those opposed to this law, to take up the cause even though he isn’t personally affected by it. “I am troubled by a growing perception that young people need to be handled or managed,” he says, but concedes: “I cannot deny that we may be at least partially to blame for this. I have participated in campaigns encouraging young people to vote for the past two years, and the response has generally been quite disheartening. However, that is a discussion for another time.” As Imran sees it, this new law will only serve to make “criminals of 30 per cent of our population, and nurture a new black market trade for alcohol”.

nother question that needs addressal is what to do about the breed of young, often between the ages of 21 and 25, bartenders and wine advisors—it’s created an amusing situation where the people who mix your drinks or advise you on which type of wine to drink can’t touch the stuff themselves. Agnel Chettiar, 23, with Good Earth wines, says that when a law starts hampering jobs in a newly booming industry, it’s time it got a lookover. “I have had to sometimes sample 10 to 15 wines a month. You have to know your wines in order to advise your clients and if a law impinges on how I work as a professional, I would have to start a social network campaign against it and go to court.” Similarly, it puts Priyanka, who is just 24, in a bind too. “Mostly, the crowd we get is under 25. In India, everyone over 21 is excited about drinking because it’s glamorous and because they have seen it in films.” As a bartender, she has seen the worst of the excesses take place around her, but says age doesn’t really have much to do with it. In fact, many mixologists say they have seen some 40-year-olds behave much worse than teenagers. So, what is a good age to start drinking, really?