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.