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I have heard of Culture and its derivatives like Agriculture, Sericulture etc. etc. and now Pub Culture which is making news for all the wrong reasons.

Pub as understood is an eatery where beer is served, especially draught beer which has no preservatives and served through dispenser in mugs. Of late, thanks to corrupt Excise officials, hard liquor too is served. But let me not dwell on these spirited matter here.

I am ruminating on the Mangalore incident where Sri Rama Sena activists attacked a Pub called, rather appropriately, Amnesia and chased away the promiscuous customers violently as we saw on TV. The national TV channels surely made a mountain out of a mole hill. Pub has been a rendezvous point for the young to chill - out, as the slang goes ever since Pubs made their appearance in our cities targeting the youth.

Here they sip beer, puff cigarettes, sniff around and mooch around. With their mood thus elevated, they gravitate towards each other depending upon their sexual perversion or interest. Some land on the dancing floor, if there is one so designated. If not, does not matter. Good enough as long as there is a floor that does not slip underneath their moving feet. Even so, not to worry. Floor can take any one's fall. Some fall on someone's lap or into arms for a full embrace and necking. The mystique potion, the music, the Pub is heaven indeed no matter no one has visited heaven. Heaven indeed is a most dangerous place if you ask me. Once there, you can't come out. Yet, some here on earth talk with great audacity about the existence of Heaven and about those who have gone there.

The point of the Pub culture is happiness. One goes to a Pub seeking happiness. Specially, these days when jobs are cut or salaries are reduced following the recession. Pub is also a place where you seek solace.

Listen to Omar Khayyam, that ultimate Guru of ecstasy:
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
Well, if this could be the scenario in Wilderness with wine and women, Pub is undoubtedly a better place to find one's Paradise.

Our boys and girls visit the Pubs seeking 'Paradise enow' which Omar Khayyam spoke of. But unfortunately that is not our culture. Herein lies the catch.

The National Commission for Women too has opined the same way as held by Sri Rama Sena. So also some others among whom are the Congress Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Congress Chief Minister of Delhi, Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra and BJP Chief Minister of Karnataka. However, it is the moral policing by unauthorised persons like Sri Rama Sena that disturbs those who are also opposed to Pub Culture.

However, a greater question will remain unanswered, what is our culture? Has anyone defined it? Is Fashion Show part of our culture? If not government may have to ban it too. Cry. Cry. What will our Prasad Bidappa do then? Pity.

To cut a long story short, in our present society, fundamentalists among all religions apart, it is impossible to bring culture under the steel frame of the religion or law. And what about the money to run the Government? Vice is part of all Governments all over the world.

Napoleon, the French Emperor, regarded vices as very good patriots. Like our Sri Rama Sena members who too are good patriots. The love of brandy brought him five million francs every year and he wanted to know which virtue contributed so generously to the public exchequer. Even Emerson, the American philosopher, endorsed this view and added that vices have broad backs and tobacco can cheerfully carry the load of armies. Do you hear this? Hic!

By K. B. Ganapathy
Courtesy: Star of Mysore