DailyOh! Why all liquor is liquid but all liquid is not liquor
No one knew people who we dismissed as drunkards were actually the growth engines powering the Indian economy.
Hello there,
Today being Monday, did you get back to your home work stations, or are one of those who had to report to the workplace? In either case, we suggest you exercise extreme caution because those who got back to liquor shops today threw caution to liquor.
Easily the longest queues today have been outside liquor shops! Guess for many Indians this is the ‘essential’ service they were waiting to open up! What does that say about ‘we’ the people? pic.twitter.com/803jWKc2xb
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) May 4, 2020
As the state governments opened up standalone liquor shops, people queued up in serpentine queues to lay a hand on the bottle. At standalone shops people did not stand alone – we mean at a distance. They formed crowds and the only way crowds can behave is misbehave. So, all drinking enthusiasts forgot there is a virus on the prowl waiting to hold their bodies hostage. You can drown your sorrows in liquor, but the virus can drown both you and that alcohol you gulp down into massive health miseries.
Positive cases in India have crossed the 42,000 mark; number of recovered patients has breached the 11,000 mark, which means there are only about 31,000 active cases; as in, cases that can transfer the virus to others. Before you rush to grab your celebratory drink, here is a dampener: 25 per cent of all the active cases have been detected in the last three days.
When the lockdown forced us all in on March 24, people said it would be easier to stay in if people could get their drinks. To build their case, they said that way the government would earn revenue too. Who knew people who we dismissed as drunkards were actually the growth engines powering the Indian economy? Actually, people knew, they just never gave enough credit.
Credit from the ‘drunks’ was taken quite in the same manner the original meaning of liquor was hijacked by alcoholic beverages. The origin of ‘liquor’, our Word Of The Day, can be traced to the Latin verb liquere, meaning ‘to be fluid’. That’s also the state of mind of people heavily drunk but that is a different discussion altogether. As for the current duscussion, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an early use of the word liquor in English language can be dated to 1225 AD, and all it meant was ‘a liquid’. All things liquid are not liquor even though people consumed sanitisers and cough syrups when the shutters to watering holes were pulled down, but all liquor is liquid. Drink responsibly and if you go out to buy your booze, do that even more responsibly. If you won't, well, you will also meet the same fate as East Dilli-walas: all liquor shops in the area have been ordered shut because, you guessed it right, no one cared about distance.
All liquor shops in eastern range that were opened today have been closed as social distancing norms were flouted at those shops: Joint Commissioner of Police (Eastern Range), Alok Kumar #Delhi (File pic) pic.twitter.com/fIOxUADl2d
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2020
So if you are out for liquor, or something, or anything else, do not think you are absolved of the responsibility to behave responsibly. Remember, your god may or may not be everywhere, but the virus from Wuhan is. Someone got to tell that to Uttar Pradesh MLA Aman Mani Tripathi too. The MLA from Nautanwa tricked authorities using chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath's name. Tripathi gave himself passes to reach Kedarnath and Badrinath. All passes need to specify reason for travel. Guess what Tripathi’s reason was. The gentleman said he had to attend the last rites of CM Yogi Adtiyanath's father, who died a few days ago. That’s amazing because even Adityanath did not attend his own father’s last rites.
You can trick security authorities by assigning stupid reasons on passes but you can't trick the coronavirus because, well, the virus won’t check your pass to allow itself entry into your body. Aman Mani Tripathi makes the cut to be our Covidiot Of The Day. You can’t talk about Aman Mani without remembering his father, who along with his wife Madhumani, is lodged in jail, for the murder of Madhumita Shukla. That case had shaken not just Lucknow this same month in 2003, but the entire country. Crime stories have quite a hook. Everybody laps up the details they throw. So, Madhumita it emerged had an affair with Amar Mani, whose wife got a whiff of it. You know wives have a way of getting a whiff of what their husbands are up to – or so they say.
Madhumita’s autopsy revealed she was pregnant and a DNA test of the feotus revealed that Aman Mani was the father. Hiding this truth was assigned as the murder motive. Aman Mani himself is an accused in the murder of his wife Sara Singh.
We wonder why Aman Mani did what he did. He should have known on being caught he can’t even tell the cops, “Tu jaanta nahi mera baap kaun hai.” No, we don’t mean a child should be held accountable for his parents' (mis)deeds, or vice versa. But with that kind of lineage, you got to tread with caution.
Not just Aman Mani, we all got to tread with caution, because none of us can tell the virus, “Tu jaanta nahi mera baap kaun hai.” Also, Aman is no child.
We are telling you about the irresponsible lot but that doesn’t mean there are no responsible people around. Many people are coming together - virtually not physically - to help fight Covid-19. Actors, musicians, singers and sportspersons came together to participate in the ‘iFor India’ concert to raise money in the battle against coronavirus.
Extremely grateful to #IforIndia, @Its_Badshah & @cacklerraj for music, lyrics & for working overnight. Thanks Sunil for the edit. All so that I could sing. Ab bhai,lockdown mein mujhe gaate hue bhi jhelna padhega. AbRam is saying 'papa enough now!’ Par Sab Sahi Ho Jaayega! pic.twitter.com/T7eLzBuC9Q
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) May 3, 2020
The proceeds from the concert will go to the India COVID Response Fund set up by GiveIndia, a donation platform. Want to know who all were part of it? Read here.
I For India, however, reminds us of a concert held in 1971, believed to be the first benefit concert. All concerts have their own benefits, as in artists get to perform, people get to enjoy and governments make money on the tickets sold. But benefit concerts are those held to raise money, or awareness, or both, for a cause. The 1971 concert was called The Concert For Bangladesh and the idea for it germinated in the mind of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.
When sitar maestro Ravi Shankar learnt of the growing humanitarian crisis facing the displaced natives of East Pakistan in early 1971, he reached out to George Harrison, who was Ravi Shankar’s close friend.
Shankar had originally planned to host the concert on his own. Now, Harrison, as you know, had been lead guitarist of the Beatles. His coming on board for the concert brought in others too. Soon, The Concert For Bangladesh had a partnership with UNICEF and got the Madison Square Garden booked for the show. The event also featured Bob Dylan’s first show since the 1969 Isle Of Wight Festival.
Here’s a glimpse of what that concert was like:
That was 1971. Crowds spelled the success of a show. In 2020, crowds can mean failure of efforts to contain the coronavirus.
So much has changed across the world since March. Everything has taken a hit and that applies to our juicy mangoes too. Estimates suggest farmers can lose 70-80 per cent of their income because of the lockdown. We hope the government will take note and put in place measures to ensure supplies aren’t hit because a mango-deprived population is just as bad as a liquor-deprived lot.
Mango can be a weapon too. This weapon was once used to 'hit' Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. The attacker was a woman named Marleny Olivo. The mango had more than just juice within it. She had scribbled a message on the mango: “If you can, call me.”
We do not know if Maduro called Marleny or his staff did. But the administration did find out that Marleny had problems with her house and so the government gave her a house. So the mango was used by the 'attacker' to 'hit' home the point that she had home troubles and she succeeded in driving home the point to Maduro.
What’s more? Maduro also promised to eat the mango hurled at him. Brilliant decision. Never waste mangoes.
And please do not take any cues from this story. Just stay home and stay safe. Gorge on 'em mangoes, but ensure you wash them thoroughly first.
We will be back tomorrow.