All the hubbub about the pub !

What people do for a little airtime in the name of political propoganda ! The phrase Ram Sena has taken the infamous innuendo and just blemished the original folflore for years to come. While some channels are taking media responsibility to new avenues like the Greenathon, we have a motley crew of disgruntled and queer pack of mendicants who subscribe goons to their version of 'society cleansing'.

My first tryst with a similar group was when we in first year of engineering school heard that couple of our batch mates were roughed up a gang of seniors calling themselves 'Bajrang Dal' and had censored all activities of our the Literary and Debating Society which indulged in 'anti- ethical' activities like debating, JAM, book reading which encouraged 'untoward' interactions of boys and girls. The issue was immediately laid to rest with our hero 'Princi' pulling the whole group up and sending them off on a two week suspension !

Feb 14th was also celebrated amongst us friends but for a much different reason from Geoffrey Chaucer, St. Valentine or courtly love - Feb 14th is the death anniversary of P G Wodehouse and as Wodehouse buffs we had to get together with a cuppa and dog earred book off the shelf and one of us would read the 'ever sensible' Jeeves out to the others and share our Wodehouse jokes and phrases. Wodehouse has been the greatest purveyor of pabulum for me then and now and is infamously responsible for my amateur writing forays.

When we had larger purses to gloat over, the cuppa turned into a pint size beer bottle and the cheeky cocktails and our 'gaggle of friends' invaded the - the very old English establishment - The pub ! True, some of the discussions were curtailed by the excess inebriation of a group member and the odd interest in a more serious topic like the latest Madonna album or the Van Halen poster, but we were never marched out of any establishment by the 'tyrannical aunts' !

While I never intend to glorify excess drinking - the current threat on the pubs amuse me. Has all the national issues become so prosaic that political mileage needs to be had from some wayward moral policing - and who are they trying to recruit and what are they trying to achieve through this excess show of tomfoolery ?" The Western habits have corupted our minds .." quoted a senior politician - So what ? 'The very word 'corruption' here is a state of opinion and if a twenty five year old decides that he wants two swigs of beer with his female collegaues - it is bloody business whether he chooses a pub , a friend's home or his own apartment ! It is not anyone's right to disenfranchise our friend of his constitutional right and curtail his frisson.