Bengaluru publican shuts shop

It was 3am when

Ashok Sadhwani

(in pic) got the distress call. “Mr. Sad hwani, can you help me?“ asked the caller. Concerned, Sadhwani, pressed him for details. The caller replied: “I am locked up in your bathroom. Please get me out,“ he said, slurring slightly.

“I couldn't believe he was still sitting in The Pub. When we opened up the place, there he was, drunk and sitting on the damn toilet,“ laughs Sadhwani,who looks more like an ageing rockstar with his flowing mane. The stunned owner of one of the first 'English' pubs in Bengaluru had only one question. How did the caller get his phone number? “Who doesn't have your number in Bangalore?“ yelled back the drunk.

That was more than 30 years ago when Bengaluru was yet to get the Pub City moniker.The Khoday group's Ramda was the first to set up shop on Church Street, but the Pub, which came soon after in 1986, became the hangout, says Sadhwani as he paces up and down The Pub World on Residency Road. The place is shut and worried employees are watching Sadhwani as he waits for word about a possible legal remedy to circumvent the SC order banning liquor sale within 500 metres from national highways. “My highway is Brigade Road,“ he deadpans. A reporter asks for a quote and he snaps. “We are all burning here. I can't keep this place open without alcohol. My staff thinks that the nightmare will soon end, but, I don't know“ he says.

Back when he started out, the business was the stuff of dreams. “It was lucrative and everything was rosy,“ says Sadhwani. He and his brother Ramesh had converted their struggling garment shop on Church Street after seeing the crowds thronging Ramda, a place that offered draft beer at affordable prices. “Every day we went past the crowds it struck us that we should get into the same trade,“ recalls Sadhwani, who was then 27 years old.

His family, Sindhis who moved to Bengaluru from Pakistan after Partition, was aghast. “They couldn't believe that we wanted to be in the liquor trade. We have been silk merchants, and later into retail of garments.“

But the brothers persisted. They met Vijay Mallya of

United Breweries

and he promised to launch Kingfisher draft only at their outlet. Sadhwani wanted to set himself apart from dingy dives and pricey five stars by offering an authentic English pub experience. “We decided to tell the customer that it is a pub with the name,“ says Sadhwani. The architect was given a London darshan to get the design accents right. “There was music, a lively atmosphere and low prices. It just clicked,“ says Sad hwani.

There was trou ble of a different kind. As women came in to the brightly lit pub, bouncers had to be brought in. Sadhwani was breaking up so many bar fights that the Cubbon Park police made him an honorary officer for briefly .“The experience toughened me,“ he says.

As competition grew, profits slid. “By 1991, many pubs opened and in a couple of years there were hundreds of them. The government went on giving licences and the charm and exclusivity went away,“ he says.Now, money isn't great what with investment and overheads being high. Regulatory hurdles have also risen.“After some pubs allowed in school children, the government stepped in and asked us to remain closed in the afternoons. After the Bombay serial blasts, we were asked to wind up by 10pm. I have seen it all,“ says Sadhwani. Many new entrants have quietly shut shop but not Sadhwani. “I have been in it for 33 years and I like it,“ he says. Cheers to that.

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.