The Hindu Business Line : <I>Pegs for a peg </I>

The Press Club at Delhi's Raisina Road, housed in a Second World War army barrack, was once the exclusive haunt of some very senior and serious journalists. No ordinary soul would venture to enter this ghost-house-like sleepy retreat.

Fortunately for me, some media biggies like Satinder Singh and M. L. Kotru recommended me and I entered the club at 23, paying Rs 35 as entrance and annual subscription. The ground floor resembled an old tavern with sofas and low tables carelessly placed along the walls facing the bar counter.

Every evening, a rather large big brown Pie radio would come alive at 9 p.m. with the English news bulletin, to the attention of veteran journalists like Ram Singh, war reporter General Sabharwal, Dilip Mukherji, Willy Lazarus, Subash Chopra, Kuldip Nayyar, Pandit Durga Das and the famous Jolly-Chaman duo. Sometimes, politicians like I. K. Gujral would stop by to share their thoughts.

`This is All India Radio! The news read by Roshan Menon' would grip us all for a full 15 minutes. Even the barman Panditji and the bearers would listen with rapt attention.

With Rs 3 in my pocket, I would go to the Club, sit at the bar counter, order a beer for Rs 1.60, followed by a kurma roti set for Re 1, and leave a 25 paise tip for Panditji; I would be left with 15 paise for the bus home.

The man behind the bar, Panditji, was middle-aged, wore a pair of scholarly glasses and sported a shoe brush moustache. He was a skilled bartender and always pepped up the under-paid newsmen, with his sher-o-shairi. I was no exception. Looking for a news peg, scribes downed one too many pegs.

Later, I would take my wife along to my favourite den.

Almost 35 years have passed. Today, it is a crowd of strangers, a blaring plasma TV and unskilled bartenders. Makes one wonder, `Where have all the veterans gone?'

(The author is a marketing consultant and freelance writer.)

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