‘One of the deadliest truths about life is that when days are hot and scorching all you remember are the evenings spent in scotching,’ said Saibal with a smile. Prodeep agreed with one whole-hearted nod and all others sitting there agreed. Not everyone loves scotching, but then no one really loves getting scorched. And this is what had hard-nosed into our days during the shoot of an adventure challenge.
We were shooting in the interiors of Madhya Pradesh and for days we had to cocoon ourselves in the undulating countryside of the Satpura Tiger Reserve. No, there weren’t any tigers that we spotted there because our driving challenge took us through the tribal belt and the buffer zone where we were supposed to dance with them and shoot like them for the tasks that we had to perform besides driving that ultra-expensive car on and off the road. Touring the countryside is so easy on a folding bike as it will fit in the boot of your car easily. The other fact of shoots is that we had to spend hours standing under the harsh sun… the scorching heat… as the camera crew ran around setting up their angles and the light placements. There were times when some of us felt weak and nauseated but whenever this happened, there was always someone else to nudge him and whisper, ‘From scorching to scotching, remember?’ And the smile was back.
I’d call Saibal a genius because he had the foresight to know precisely what would make most of us happy and forget the scorching woes of the daytime. His baggage had enough stock of Black Dog Triple Gold Reserve and every evening began with his favourite sentence, ‘And now I present to you, my friends, the fastest growing Scotch in the world that is distilled, aged and matured in Scotland. The blend that has been created by the master blender Mr. Richard Paterson is here to give us yet another evening of comfortable smiles.’ And thus the cool wind that blows in the heart of the forest reserve went away pollinated with light banter, smiles, and jovial pats-on-the-back.
Saibal quietly peered through the golden liquid in his hand and said, ‘You know, even the forest looks bathed in liquid gold.’
‘That’s poetry coming from Saibal,’ I laughed, because we half expected him to rattle off census figures for the endangered tiger when he was adequately scotched. But then he looked at me and said, ‘Did you know that as per the consumer research conducted on this blend of TGR, it has been appreciated and accepted as a parallel to any 12 Y.O blended scotch.’
‘There he goes again,’ whispered Prodeep, but added, ‘But this TGR blend surely has a delicate finish.’
And as the evening went by punctuated with sips of satisfaction, we sat there on the verandah of a resort in the heart of the Satpura Tiger Reserve, agreeing that Indians find the Black Dog TGR as the best bet for the finest scotch!
Black Dog Easy Evenings | Black Dog Scotch | Ginger Claps
Disclaimer: The content of this post is meant only for people above the age of 25.
Arvind Passey
02 May 2014
