




George Orwell once described a warm beer and a country pub as being among the essential flavours of England. Nobody would claim that now... I’ve gone from being someone who stopped in at a pub several times a week when I was younger — and practically living there when I was a student — to hating pubs. Many of the establishments are so pressed for custom that they will do anything to fill their bar — mainly selling toxic drinks in devastating quantities to kids who consider a good night out to be one that ends in copious vomiting...
It would be hard to convince anyone that the pub was once the premiere venue for literary and journalistic life in this country, for intelligent argument and amorous adventure, for meeting with the unknown. Not one person under 40 that I know met their partner in a pub, or got their present job via a pub assignation. Though quite a number of them could say that the last time they were exposed to violence was in a pub during “happy hour”.


Group Websites : Express India | Financial Express | Screen India | Loksatta | Kashmir Live | Biz Publications