From-here-there-everywhere

Came across a news item in the Deccan Herald a couple of days back about a study in Finland that concludes that consumption of alcohol is likely to be more if there is a bar in the vicinity. Well, if this were really true, every other resident in Bangalore would have been an alcoholic. Go to any area in Bangalore, whether the items of immediate daily necessities like bread/vegetables/medicines are available or not, a wine shop will certainly be there (may be my definition of “daily necessities” is all wrong).Often the shops dealing in these spirits also have “spiritual” names like Mahalakshmi Wines, Chamundeshwari wines, Saraswati Wines, Tirumala bar and so on. But the tragedy of a bar being too near is that “respectable” folks like me cannot approach them unnoticed by other “respectable” folks of the neighbourhood lest I get branded as alcoholics synonymous. This put me in a very piquant situation once. About three decades back, we were residing in a comparativ