The Breezers are back in town

Back in April something dreadful happened. The slots on the liquor shop shelves where the Bacardi Breezers should be became bare. This was bad, because Breezers are 35 rupees each, about the same as a can of soft drink. A bottle of Indian wine costs fifteen times this, imported wine about twice the Indian wine price. So you can see why Rod and I enjoyed having unfettered access to Breezers. But like Old Mother Hubbard's, the wine shop cupboard was bare, and it wasn't until we opened the newspaper one morning we discovered why. Breezers are manufactured under licence in India, and the existing licences expired at the end of March. Someone forgot to file the papers requesting the renewal of the IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) , so production had to stop until the new licences were issued. In a country which so values paperwork, especially when carbon paper is involved, failing to have the right papers was a really big mistake. It seems the authorities wouldn't allow the licences to be fast-tracked, as it's taken four months for Breezers to get back to the shops. Maybe they didn't offer a bribe, or the bribe wasn't big enough, or the Commissioner for Excise is a whisky drinker. And it wasn't just the licence for Bacardi Breezers that had been overlooked, many of the foreign beer brands were also withdrawn. You couldn’t buy Fosters, not even in the Australian High Commission. Strewth! What’s the world coming to!