Back Of The Book: A Head For Beer

BACK OF THE BOOK
A Head For Beer

Beer drinking is out of the closet, and cutting across class barriers. But the choice is eclectic, from light, imported ales to super-strong, turpentine-influenced Haryanvi lager. MOINAK MITRA on finding a froth of choice in stuffy Delhi.

Penthouse
In the exclusive bars of five-star hotels, the creamy layer of society choosen from a fine selection of imported beers.

Geinness	Rs 400
Corona	Rs 400
Heineken	Rs 300
Budweiser	Rs 300
Fosters	Rs 300

Restaurant
As it becomes socially acceptable, pubs and mainline family restaurants find a growing market for Indian beer

Kingfisher	Rs 80
Kalyani Black Label	Rs 80
Fosters	Rs 100
Royal Challenge	Rs 80
Sandpiper	Rs 80

Sideroad
The trucker preference for IMFL quarts is giving way to local beer, albeit superstrong, potent, and extravagantly named brews.

Thunder- bolt	Rs 50
Turbo	Rs 50
Godfather	Rs 50
Tiger Hill	Rs 50
Black Partridge	Rs 50

Strains of Pankaj Udhas' ghazal sharaab cheez hi aisi na chodi jaaye (Liquor is a thing that's hard to leave) waft across the moldy red carpets of United Coffee House (UCH), one of the numerous mid-budget eateries in Connaught Place, New Delhi. I've grown up on Chicago's Hard Habit To Break, and I fathom, this is its Hindi variant. Kitsch decorates the walls in the form of the mythological nymphets we call Apsaras.

I catch snatches of loud conversations between portly, middle-aged men in safari suits. They seem to dominate these restaurants, these middle-aged Indians, some who look like they could be on a police wanted list. There's talk of real estate-grabs, battered stocks, and the occasional mistress. Other tables are populated by king-size families on king-size tables. A couple of tables are occupied by smart yuppies.

There's one thing common to all the tables: beer in cheap, glass mugs. It could be Australian Fosters (the imported, not the local variety), UB's omnipresent Kingfisher, the stronger Kalyani Black Label and Royal Challenge, and Inertia Breweries' Sand Piper light lager. In 1999-2000, the size of the market for Indian beer was 66 million cases. It went up by 9 per cent to 72 million cases in 2000-01. In 2001-02, the estimated market size is 78 million cases. The hard habit is being broken in middle India. Beer isn't any longer taboo and the evidence is freely available during a day on the town of India's stuffy capital, Delhi.

Down the road from the UCH, I walk past the imposing bottle-palms and into the neo-colonial lobby of the five-star Imperial hotel. Here at the bar of the 1911, rated among the city's best watering holes, the mood and music are dramatically different. Rock n' roll plays in the background, and a whiff of Givenchy sweeps across the gleaming marble floor from the matron in silk, the smoke from her Dunhill curling into the chilled air. Before her in a silver mug, the Nastro Azzura is displaying a little head. This is Heineken, Budweiser and Guinness-the smooth, black ale-country. The only Indian beers available are Kingfisher and Kalyani. But it's beer overall that climbing the charts. ''The demand is sky high,'' exclaims bar manager Vikas Nanda, who says it is up 30 per cent from last year.

There are takers for phoren beer now and post-QRs, they have become so much more conspicuous. Working women and professionals love their lightness of taste. ''The Mexican Corona is usually served with lemon and women are slurping it up wherever it has been launched-we're planning to serve it here very soon,'' says the 1911's bartender, who calls himself just Raza.

But how do you make a choice? Would you rather show your peers that you have arrived by nursing a Mexican Corona, or would you rather be the unknown victim of a Godfather hit, the Godfather being a beer mixed with one-half turpentine (or so it seems), distilled somewhere in the Haryanvi heartland.

Let's take it from the top.

Sunny Mexico's Corona is the latest in the market, a favourite at yuppie watering holes in Delhi like Blues, Rodeo and tgif. Generally, a 330 ml bottle of Corona arrives with a wedge of lime fitted in its neck and it tastes, well, we'll leave that to you. At Blues, a pint of Corona costs Rs 390, enough to gulp down four large (650 ml) Kingfisher monoliths at Rs 110 a piece. Here too manager Pramod Joshi notes that beer consumption is up 40 per cent over last year. He's happy and so are his regular guzzlers: young couples, Shahrukh Khan wannabes, and assorted young 'uns, here for an evening of frothy conversation. This rung of ''concept dining restaurants'' store a slew of other imported beers as well-Heineken, Amstel Lite, Tiger, Carlsberg, and ABC Stout, to name a few.

Many kilometres and a civilisation away, the great beer ripple effect is making itself felt on Delhi's border badlands. In the heat of the September sun, two unshaven truckers are lounging on charpoys. They watch me with amusement as I introduce myself and explain what I'm doing-trying to find a good beer. ''O ji, main huun Jural (I am Jural),'' says one, twirling his handlebar moustache. He gestures to his silent, somewhat suspicious compatriot. ''Aur ji, yeh hai Commissioner (and this is Commissioner).'' He laughs uproariously and points to the ramshackle vend behind him. There's no music here, just the thunder of trucks, the mooing of cows.

This is the home of local beers whose names suggest their power: Thunderbolt, Turbo, Tiger Hill, Godfather, and Black Partridge. They may retail for Rs 50 a bottle, but as I soon find, a few swigs of Tiger Hill is enough to feel the need to re-enact India's bravado in the Kargil war. ''Jural'' and ''Commissioner'' said they switched to Godfather and Tiger Hill after they realised beer-or this turpentine-flavoured version of it-was more value for money than Rs 145 on a bottle of the ubiquitous IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor).

Whether in silver mug, lager glass, or theka glass, this habit's going to be real hard to break.

TREADMILL

Dread The Gap, Get Back On Track

By that I don't mean you should join the legions of north Americans who keep up a tirade against the clothing retail chain, The Gap, protesting that it is an evil influence on the youth of America. On the contrary, I quite like The Gap's khakis. Their shirts are nifty too. The Gap I'm referring to here is the one that happens when you miss going to the gym for a week or so. That's when you run the risk of widening the Gap. I've had that problem a couple of times. Miss gym for a week. Then the next week too and then, before you know it, a whole month is through and you've not made it there even once.

It's scary for two reasons. First, because the longer the absence from your gym routine the tougher it is to get your motivation to go back there. And second, because a prolonged absence from the gym almost always sets the clock back on whatever you have achieved: strength, muscle mass, endurance, fat-loss. That means you have to recover much lost ground-a daunting and demoralising task.

But what if the Gap has happened? How do you bridge it? Sheer will power, some gym fanatics will tell you and they are right. Try this: if you've missed gym for a considerably long period, check your body out in the private confines of your bathroom. Or take a look at recent photographs of yourself. Chances are you'll see that belly getting back to what it was before you started exercising and if that doesn't drive you back to the treadmill, I'll refund your gym membership fees. But it's what you do on the day you resume your schedule that's most important.

Here's what works for me: limber up those creaky muscles with some stretches. Then jump on the stationary bike for a good 10 minutes of brisk pedalling. And, now the best part, head for the weights and choose the exercise that you like the most-it could be bench presses or biceps curls or whatever. Do four to five sets and then go home. You're bound to feel like coming back the next day. And the next and the...

That's the cure. But here's the prevention. You can prevent the Gap from happening if you do something simple: never ever miss going to the gym at least twice a week. Two days at 30 minutes a pop will do the trick. The Gap won't show up. Try it.

-MUSCLES MANI

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