Sometimes too much of food and drink is barely enough

A unique custom that must be a ‘Nepali’ thing, like so many other ‘Nepali’ things, such as looking up at the sky when one hears an airplane pass overhead, requires of those whom you invite over at your place for dinner to arrive fashionably and irritably – assuming you’re the host – late, drink from the bottles you’ve carefully stored away for special occasions, and leave well past midnight after gobbling up their dinner after much coercion, usually from the mother of the host who’s spent most part of her day in the kitchen cooking the grand meal.



Usually, dinner at my place is done in a cultured way. I invite you at a normal hour, usually at 7. [break]



You arrive at a cultured hour; have a drink or two from a bottle which is already open and available.



Then, before long, my wife will insist we have dinner whilst the food is still warm.



Of course, you’re allowed to continue drinking, preferably in small quantities, during the dinner. Conversation ranging from politics to the latest development in cooking ‘masala’ continues as the level in the bottle gets lower.



This, in my rather limited view, is a good dinner. Of course, every now and then, some ‘mutual’ friend will somehow make his way into my house, usually accompanied by a known friend, and go on to finish an entire bottle of fine whiskey without so much as to even pronouncing my name correctly once during the entire session.



Not to forget gobbling down the cheese and the roasted nuts which I always keep at an arm’s length and is oh so dear to me.



The only time this type of behavior is acceptable is when we get an entire goat weighing about 20 kgs for the family during Dashain.



Now, my family consists of principally two meat eaters since my mother is a vegetarian and my wife won’t eat the goat because she feels sorry for him.



Then I’m thankful for the people and the ‘mutual’ friends who walk into my house. Grateful because by the time we manage to stuff the entire goat into the refrigerator, we’re usually running out of space already.



Although I somehow always secretly wish that they would leave the bottles alone. And I’m sure if you’re one of those who slaughter goats during Dashain and stock up on the bottles to avail of the festival discounts, you wish they would leave the bottles alone. Never mind the goat.



In the meantime, get some stacked in your bar too. You can’t possibly go wrong with a few bottles stacked in your bar.



Eventually, you’ll find that your precious bottles aren’t for everyone who walks through the door. It’s certainly not for those who ask for a whiskey and Coke with a lot of ice, either.



These bottles I believe are for immoderation, for camaraderie, and reserved for conversations with close friends that last well beyond midnight. After all, a man’s got to believe in something at the end of  the day.



And I believe I’ll have another plate of ‘bhutun’ and a drink because sometimes too much of goat meat and whiskey is barely enough.



The writer is a banker by profession. He enjoys single malts and other good things in life.

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