November 15, 2008 – (Posting #4)

November 15, 2008 – Saturday (Posting #4)

OK I lied; I have one more posting to make for Saturday. I haven’t talked about Gujarat in general but it is worth noting that this is a DRY state (and I don’t mean the humidity). So obtaining alcohol is often impossible. But today it was just difficult if you were willing to jump through all the many hoops set up by the government and who knows which other authorities. After many dusty dry days on the road, I was.

Apparently Gujarat is dry because Mahatma Gandhi lived here for many years and the custom has never changed. Also today there seems to be a small but highly influential Muslim population who I presume wants to discourage drinking. They’ve put a pretty good program in place to do so.

Thankfully I ran into Cliff in the lobby and he told me there’s a way to obtain a liquor license that enables you to purchase wine. I went to the room, got my passport, went to the front desk, got a form which the desk filled out, stamped (stamps are very important in India) and made copies of my passport and India Visa. I was told to go downstairs to a sort of office slash wine shop where I could obtain my permit and buy wine.

I went downstairs with my passport and stamped documents and encountered two white haired men sitting at enormous handwritten ledger books who shouted at everyone (there were Australian young men there jumping through the same hoops and getting the same treatment including the yelling).

MADAM, MADAM, SIGN HERE. MADAM FILL OUT THIS FORM. NO MADAM THAT’S NOT THE CORRECT ANSWER; REDO IT. MADAM SIT OVER HERE. NO MADAM MOVE OVER THERE. This went on for some time and I thought I was near the end of the process when one man announced HERE IS YOUR SHERRY. I said I don’t want Sherry. MADAM, YOU DON’T WANT SHERRY? THEN WHAT IS THAT YOU WANT? I want red wine. RED WINE (much scurrying about) RED WINE – OK OK HERE IS YOUR WINE. Well…ok…but do you have any other kinds of red wine? OTHER KINDS. NO MADAM WE HAVE ONLY THIS. Really…because the brochure shows several kinds here. (Much scurrying) OH YES MADAM, WE HAVE THIS (points) KIND. Excellent…but are there any other choices? UHHHH (again points) MADAM WE HAVE THAT KIND.

You get the idea. So finally I ended up with three bottles (you have to buy three because that is the max allowed and who knows when another purchase is possible and if you can stand going through this process again). Turns out everyone I spoke to bought three bottles. PLUS I acquired perhaps THE most coveted of all items among the members of our group – A CORKSCREW. All this for 1,500 rupees (about $30) for wine plus another 500 rupees ($10) for the permit.

And finally, here’s something funny that I just read in my guidebook about Gujarat – “ around 40% of the Indians now living in the New York area are Gujaratis and the common Gujarati surname ‘PATEL’ has come to be commonly identified as Indian.” Stayed at any hotels in the US lately?