Trivandrum to be renamed as Trivand – without the RUM - BAR-barring by Kerala GOVT.

Yes – Trivandrum the capital city of Kerala will go under another name change yet again on tomorrow (12^th Sept 2014) due to removal of RUM from its name and will be called as Trivand hence forth. Kerala govt has announced that the BARs (Kerala version of Bangalore Pubs if you like to call it that way) will be closed down on 12^th sept onwards in the state. Foreign liquor will be available either in 5* hotels OR in government civil supplies outlets. This BAR-bar-i-an decision has been made by the Ooman Chandy  govt and will be implemented on 12^th.

Does this stop Chetta’s drinking?  Does Chalakkudy and Karunagapalli now renamed to Chalakudiyilla or Karuna. Will they be withdrawing from their ever famous traditional game of drinking in Onam/Christmas season. Will we get to see news that Chalakuddy has won in ‘Vadam vali(tug of war)’ OR ‘Chakkil Chattam (sack race)’in  this Onam season. Is this what we want?

Kerala, which comes second in per capita consumption of liquor after Punjab, gets a tax revenue of roughly Rs 8,500 crore annually — 22 per cent of the total tax revenue —from the sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor. The per capita consumption in Kerala is around seven litre per year while the national average is only 2.5 litre.

When we talk about call barring in telecom world, we do have another option called call divert. Once the BARs will be barred – where will the nature’s call for many of the ‘Ayyappa Baiju’s’ in Kerala will be diverted to? Yeah – toddy shops are still ON in the god’s own land. Not sure if Govt has done any capacity estimation here – will the toddy shops be able to consume all the Chetta’s who will left barless from 12^th. Can Chettas afford 5* liquor? Will all the Chettas OK to stand in queue in the civil supplies outlets? KSBC outlets will be available only 297 days in a year henceforth – what is govt answer for the remaining 68 days?  

After this announcement, Kerala matrimonial websites and agencies are observing a great demand of brides whose father are serving or retired from Defense.

Intension of the govt is reducing alcohol consumption in Kerala households to improve the social situation of the community; By this move, is it going to reduce? Yes – to some extend – yes; definitely yes.

Is it good to reduce alcohol consumption? Doctor’s practicing in Kerala claims ‘Nov/Dec/Jan’ is off season for them as patients count is less. Less of alcohol consumption during these months due to Sabarimala season – which is hinting that reducing consumption, is good.

This monk (old monk rum) has made lot of Chettas to sell their Maruthis, if not Ferraris. Some of the high class Chettas (but still cannot afford Le-meridian liquor) are asking their cousins coming from neighboring to state to bring a bottle – who otherwise would have been sitting in some BARs for their drinking needs. This class is hesitated to stand in the long queues of KSBC outlets. This way – yes it is reducing.

Punarjani-2030 is the program that govt is offering to support to the rehabilitation of employees in the bars and hotels. I have no clue why is it called 2030; are they going to start in 2030 OR are they going to finish it by 2030 – no idea. These employees are the ones who will get orphaned due to this change. Will they be really rehabilitated? Similar BAN on arrack was implemented by Antony govt and 1996 and there was a promise to rehabilitate the ‘arrack outlet’ employees.  The below story is of real life incident of a person very close to me, who got really affected by arrack ban 1996.

Saabu (name changed) was manager for one of the arrack outlet in Trivandrum during this time. He had a king like life when he was at that post. I can still remember the Sundays when he returns to home for his weekly offs. There is dialogue from ‘Mohanlal’ in Ravanaprabhu movie about Madhupal’s character in the movie. Karthikeyan has got him a job in one of his friend’s distillery and being around alcohol and seeing its manufacturing process Hari (Madhupal’s charactor) does not drink. I guess this is possible only in movies. In our case of Sabu Annan, being around alcohol all the time it is natural tendency to consume some and he was consuming in large quantities and hence shrinking his liver. 96 ban on arrack shattered him literally and brought him to the road. Govt has given some money as compensation after two years, using which he has started many business ventures, but none of them sustained. Those are all negativities about the change and some or many of the BAR employees that are going to face after 12^th. But there is a BIG gain for him and his family because of this change – he was alive for longer period of time on the mother earth. He could complete all the paternal duties. He could see his grandchildren before he passed away 2 year back. If was continuing in the arrack outlet for more time probably he would not have done all those. For me it is a BIG positivity that ‘this change’ can bring. If at least few of the BAR employees manage to see their grandchildren then it is a right move.

       Yours Truly,

       Aary