Column

There is more alcohol consumption in Mumbai than ever before. With its non-stop partying, the daily launch of a new alcoholic beverage, and the feel-good spirit in the air, Mumbaikars are knocking it back like it was going out of style.

Most guests put away at least four to five glasses of wine or hard liquor at a party. Given that they go to more than one party on most nights that makes for a whole lot of glasses.

I have said this before, if you’ve made it to a certain crowd in Mumbai you can float quite easily from one party to another round the clock sipping a host of tantalising alcoholic beverages.

Champagne at the launch of a luxury watch, malt whiskey at an art auction, cocktails at a product launch and so on and so forth without ever having to have your feet touch the ground — or suffer a hangover. You can drink from an unlimited supply of free booze the whole year through in fact — and I know a few people who do exactly that.

No sooner is your glass empty at a party than it is promptly replenished. Your host cajoles, berates, argues you into having one just one more drink. Fellow guests call you a wet blanket for not keeping up with their consumption if you happen to be off drinks that night. And the culture of one for the road is alive and kicking.

Of course dinner is served late, very late, in Mumbai — and a party empties out soon after. This means that those who have drunk a lot do not have the time to sober down before they hit the road. With almost a bottle down their guts, their adrenalin pumping from all that socialising, their heads spinning — they get behind the wheel and hit the road.

Of course the fact that they are driving faster, sexier cars makes them want to drive like demons. Speed is the spiralling Sensex’s by-product. Movies like Dhoom, hot wheels on the road and a devil-may-care attitude is rampant.

In Mumbai the concept of having designated lovers for the evening will find more takers than the concept of having designated drivers!

Then, of course, Mumbai has better roads than it did even a few years ago. Drag strips like Marine Drive, Carter Road and the Bandra-Kurla complex are invitations for speed demons to flex their muscles. Media and movies, especially Hollywood, inspire the young to take to the wheel and glamourise the young and restless spirit.

There are few preventive measures. No establishments refuse to serve inebriated guests and check to weed out underage drinking. Breatha-lyser checks outside hotels and pubs that would act as a deterrent are few and far between. Of course feeble punitive laws to deal with drunken drivers do not act as a deterrent.

Lastly, there is Mumbai’s construction boom which has resulted ironically in more people sleeping on pavements!

Given this volatile cocktail of realities is it any wonder that the Carter Road carnage was a tragedy waiting to happen?

s_malavika@dnaindia.net