My association with the terms like whisky, beer, rum, or anything alcoholic is very brief. During my B.Tech course in Biochemical Engineering, I had to study one course on Fermentation Technology and I only know that any of those alcoholic beverages are end-product of a biological process called “fermentation”.
Any time before or after that brief introduction to the subject and the “object”, I never came close to it – primarily because there was no precedents in my parental home of someone being a connoisseur of these and hence there was some degree of apprehension about the “use , abuse and negative effect” of all these ‘substances’. In fact, one of the reasons of falling in love with the man I got married to later was, probably, because, he understood my sentiment fully without any cribbing or complain and I have never seen him drinking ever since I have known him except occasionally buying something which might have caught his fancy in airports duty free only for collection purpose!
Then we shifted to Dubai and gradually started getting to know friends! One such friend (a passionate lover of Single malt whisky) introduced my husband to a society that few of such people who share the same passion, formed – Malt Society in Dubai. A casual introduction became a passion within no time for my husband and he started buying single malt whisky from air port duty free every time he travelled out of Dubai, like a maniac! Within a matter of two months, we needed to buy a shelf (or whatever it may be called) to keep those bottles and cases in various shapes, sizes and colors! So from now onwards, instead of the usual hugs and kisses when he comes back from tours, I started to greet him with a stern look moment I noticed that “duty free” bag in his hand ( he took extreme care so that not a single credit card slip comes to my notice!). Before buying anything exquisite, he would complete his research now that he owned a “whisky bible” too and tried to read out to me also some of his research outcomes!!.....I was the last person on earth to show any interest on this obnoxiously smelly “object”
Till this point of time, I did not erupt and allowed him to take pride in his increasingly growing collections (now he has stopped buying watches) mainly because he still maintained his promise and never ever tasted anything from his collection or outside! All hell broke loose the day he mentioned that he would be going to attend one of the tasting sessions!
Then the second one followed and I knew it was time to make him realise my utter dislike for this new -found passion of him. He was given a chance to choose between his passion which I disliked from my core and his wife! He never attended any of those tasting sessions after that (he did not even complained once about that embargo)and I allowed him to continue with his collection spree so long as he gifted me a piece of jewellery of equivalent worth (hoping that would deter him)!!
One evening he came home and showed me a dinner invitation from one of the Malt Society members and asked me whether I would agree to go! I agreed instantaneously and while the kids enjoyed “Motocross Championship” with their grandparents, we went to the party!
This was the first time I saw a collection of whisky (Oh, they say, its single malt even though I have no idea what is so special about that!) of that magnitude and the bottles of innumerable shape, size and color, stacked so neatly, made such a beautiful art! The male folk started their discussion on Single malt head-on while we ladies talked on our favorite issues starting from cooking, kids, jewellery, shopping and what not! Surprisingly, none of the members drank more than one or two sips, contrary to my belief, and the sheer details with which they were discussing the uniqueness of each whisky was a testimony of how passionate they are about it! How can a person be so passionate to gather such amount of knowledge on anything? The sip that they took was only to get a feel whether the taste corresponds to the age, maturity etc of the variety. It indeed overwhelmed me!
All my inhibitions vanished within few minutes and when Uttara suggested I should try “margarita” (is the spelling correct?) and Tabarak graciously fixed me one, I enjoyed my “drink” so thoroughly now that my apprehensions are gone!
I loved the company of the ladies and they accepted me with so much of warmth! I loved the way the men interacted! The only binding thread was love for single malt whisky and hence, nothing else was important! The members and their lovely wives were certainly people I would love to meet occasionally!
I became a fan of Malt Society by the time we came home and freed my husband from the embargo I imposed on him, fully convinced that they have not formed the society for unlimited drinking ! I have requested Sujeet with a suggestion that occasionally they should invite wives also during tasting sessions!
(I got this piece of information from Puneet that my husband writes for their blog! May be, after some time when I know a little more about single malt whisky, I will add some input to his writing – after all I have more experience in blogging than him! )
Everything in life is worth tasting!!
