Vat69 and other miniatures

Mmmmm.... Courtsey: oldblendedwhisky.com

I think my first encounter with vat69 was in the movie Naseeb. There was a song with Amit, Reena, and Shatru where Shatru is drinking. He comes to the bar and drinks from vat69 bottle. Of course we didn't drink in those days, but it did seem enchanting at that time. vat69 was one of the most popular whiskeys in those days, and of course later on, Johnnie walker took over, and now it's all about 'labels'. Apparently, the drink is still in production. You can read more on it here -


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vat_69
 
Back in 80s, when we were experimenting with liquor, it was more about bagpipers, mcdowells, and RCs. I picked up big on whiskey. I know Dinesh, Ajay, Mayank, Ashish, etc. didn't. Of course, Ashish got his style from his dad who had his own taste in style - while we thought 10Re was too much, he donned a 200Re goggles, and he was always uptodate on electronics, steroes, etc. In their drawing room showcase (you know how those 80s showcases were), Gulati uncle had these miniature whiskey bottles displayed. I don't know where he got them from, but they looked enticing. During the summers of the 80s & 90s, I often used to hang around at Ashish's house. We were either playing teen patti, or were trying to take a peek inside the maid's blouse. If that was not available, we would try and get some amroods from his backyard, and sometimes, anil and sonu would jump over the boundary and join in.  

Courtsey: A collector on internet

During one such summer afternoon, when uncle and aunty were gone, we laid our hands on the miniature whiskey bottles. We drank a little and evened it our with water. In dark bottles, it would be difficult to make out whether it's liquor or water. When uncle didn't notice anything, we continued on our adventure, and every now and then drank from the bottles. Now I don't what the state of the bottles is now or whether one day uncle tried them and wondered why they tasted like water or not (onyl Ashish can tell us), but it was a lot of fun.

Aquarium

Kids have been asking for a pet for many many years now. Their first choice was obviously dog, then it came down to hamster, turtle etc. We even went to the pet store and looked at the hamster. It didn't seem like I could handle it, and then there was the task of training it. Initially it bites because it thinks that your hand is the food. So after much ado and emotion from kids, I finally settled on fish.

Many books were gotten from libraries. Kabir & I being the literati in the house spent hours and hours analyzing their physiology and diet and setting up the tanketc. Finally, one fine morning, we stepped into the store. Setting up tank wasn't an easy task either. Size, decorations, water purification, filter process, etc - tons of stuff. Wondering how they do it in India. Anyways brought the tank, set it up and then left the filter on for several weeks. It needs to be done to accumulatte enough checmical on the bio wheel, whatever that is. Also, I wasn't ready for a pet still. In the end, after much pushing from kids, one fine Sunday morning, we went to the store, and selected 2 guppies. Put them in the tank and they started floating. Right from the beginning they went along well. They were the best friends.

2 weeks later, we got 4 more varieties, and the tank looked great. The new guppy joined the 2 old ones. The silver platy became loner but was the fiercest eater. Another guppy shied away and explored hiding places, while the most beautiful one, the blue one, also tried to mix in. Yesterday, the whole day, the blue one didn't come out and this morning I saw it's dead body floating in the water. Yes, we lost out first pet!

Now, I know Dinu's mouth is watering as he thinks of fish pakoras. I think tonight there will be fish frying in the pan at Rawat house!