Liquor In Times Of Lockdown

India is one of the few countries in the world that has banned alcohol during the ongoing lockdown. Across much of the developed world, from America and Canada, to the British Isles, Europe and Singapore, the sale of alcohol is permitted. In countries where marijuana is legal, even that has been included in the altered list of essential goods. Home deliveries have been stepped up; it’s business as usual.

- Palash Krishna Mehrotra

The most striking instance of this difference in approach came in the form of a viral photo of Veronosi, a 93-year-old woman in quarantine in Seminole, Pennsylvania. Out of stock, she held up a sign which bore the legend: ‘I need more beer.’ In the photograph, she’s also holding a can of Coors. The brewer, Molson Coors, immediately took note and delivered ten cases to Veronosi’s doorstep.

Coping with reality

We Indians tend to marvel at the liberalism of the West. When it comes to us the default position is: But this cannot work in India. The position is marked by a kind of defeatism, a lack of confidence in ourselves. It’s almost as if Indians have accepted their inferiority of their own accord.

If we could follow the high ideals encapsulated in the dictum of ‘Simple living, high thinking’, there wouldn’t be any problem. If religious serials and a spot of balcony gardening was sufficient to sustain us through a prolonged lockdown, no one would complain. But that alas is not the case.