Two Glasses in your hands are worth .......

 Two Glasses in Your Hands are worth … Dinesh K Kapila

Obviously this is inspired by the proverb, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. The intrinsic philosophy is that it is better to hold onto a small, certain advantage you already possess than to risk losing it by chasing something potentially better but highly uncertain. This saying dates back centuries, rooted in medieval falconry and hunting, where a bird already captured and held in the hand was far more valuable than birds still hiding in the wild bushes. Men have subscribed to that thought ever since and now it seems extended it to alcohol.

There was a reunion of classmates and the greying classmates invited even the younger lot to join in. It was the party with a buzz. Now at this party there was Manohar, quietly observing, as he stared at the glass of whiskey in his left hand. It was surely a glass of whiskey, with a smoky amber quality. He looked at his drink .Thoughtfully. Maybe he was nostalgic, about his youth and his varied adventures, liaisons of his youth, as he looked around quietly. Now whether it was a single malt, the Indri or the Paul John, it could not be made out. Personally, I stay with my eternal favourites of the Glen family. I followed with quiet amusement the eyes of Manohar, it was obvious he was still very much young at heart. I met him, chatted a bit and moved on.

A while later with a loud pop the sparkling wine was opened. There were the usual loud cheers as a couple of more bottles were opened up. All through Manohar stayed focused on his whiskey, sipping it quietly and looked quite chilled out. Just then the waiter floated by just where he stood, the flutes of champagne balanced neatly on his tray. Without blinking, Manohar’s right hand shot out and claimed one for himself. He stood there, smiling, happy, weighed down by the luxury, a drink in each hand. The old proverb about a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush crossed my mind just then. As far as I could make out though, Manohar was not really weighed down by such a thought. Right now, he had two birds firmly in the hand, with absolutely no intention of looking for a bush !!

Both the Indri and the Paul John claim to be crafted exclusively from indigenous Indian six-row barley, which yields a distinct grainy sweetness and robust profile. Now there stood Manohar at the cocktail party, a monument in the present moment to logistical confusion and indecision, one hand cradling the deep, smoky amber of a single malt, the other balancing the high-strung, fizzing elegance of a Champagne flute. What would be the next step was certainly on his mind.

It was a confusion mainly as it defied physics, logic, and basic beverage pairing, which also made it an uncannily accurate physical manifestation of his romantic history when both his heart and his body were young. If one looked at the left hand, that is the hand holding the whiskey. Well, the single malt had to be heavy, steady, aged to perfection, and demanding patience. It’s the marital equivalent, deep, grounded, complex, and meant to be sipped slowly by the fireside or on an armchair through the decades. You don't rush whiskey; you invest in it, you commit to its provenance, and you accept that it’s going to burn a little on the way down before it warms your soul.

Then take a look at his right hand, that was holding the Champagne flute. The sparkling bubbly was ever so effervescent, bubbling over with immediate enthusiasm, refusing to sit still, and saying, go ahead, enjoy the drink. Right now. It’s the eternal embodiment of the college or university boyfriend or girlfriend era, all sparkle, instant romance or a fling and drama with an attitude. You don’t really ponder the vintage of a flute at a party; you just enjoy the fizz while it lasts, knowing full well that in twenty minutes, it’s going to go flat and you’ll be hunting for a refill.

Now Manohar had in essence spent his youth treating romance and love like a walk down an open-bar corridor. Why settle for the comforting predictability of the single malt when the room was overflowing with effervescent flutes, with varying complex notes. Ah, the cardinal error of one’s youth, Manohar never could fathom that a flute eventually empties, leaving you standing alone with an empty stemware crisis.

Even now, legally anchored to the stout, reliable oak-cask reality of matrimony, you could still catch a glimpse of his memory twitching, wondering what the youngsters around him were upto. It took years before he could really look away when anyone was pouring anything bubbly, foreign, and slightly dangerous. It took even a more concerted effort and deep thought for Manohar to realise how to love one drink without constantly checking the menu to see what else was on tap.

It’s like many youngsters today, in their late twenties, who hold onto both the champagne and whiskey at a party, many are also staying romantically or socially confused by keeping multiple close "friends" around. Both situations come down to the exact same theme, hedging bets and wanting it all. Their days further down the road may only be more confusing but camouflaged as independence and choice being valued over one single malt !!

This can cause its own disruption if this continues into the forties or fifties. A mature man, worked hard with his father, to build up a great business. Alongside, he and his graceful wife, it was a love marriage, raised two lovely children. Then in his late forties he apparently read more and more literature and watched Instagram on how working hard in the decades that mattered left men like him bereft of romance and the joy of life, the ‘joie de vivre’ as the French say. So he moved from single malt to champagne and whiskey both and found the actual one, having decided he was out of love with his long standing partner. The lady love went in for a quick separation but our man, well, his own Dad asked him to choose between his wealth and the lady love. The literature and Instagram led coaching went awry as he realised that deep inside he was still in love with his partner of two decades plus !!

Many a youngster of course evolves as the years go by, a personal choice and with a sense of responsibility. Peace is the new luxury for them as they evolve. They choose to learn, build lives and invest in the process. That is, the single malt quietly takes over !! Largely !! With the champagne adding the odd zing once in a while, only figuratively that is !!