SHILLONG: There was a sparkle in his eyes as he stared at the array of bottles of assorted shapes and sizes on the shelves across the iron grille of the liquor shop in Laitumkhrah on Monday.
“I just can’t wait to get a bottle”, he said without wanting to be named; there were six customers ahead of him in the queue, each separated by the mandatory metre, give or take a few centimetres, for social distancing.
As he reached the second slot, a masked and gloved shop attendant poured a few drops of hand sanitiser on his right hand, which he gleefully accepted and rubbed vigorously; corona can wait for the moment. “Only the other day I paid three times the price for this in the black market”, he said as he tucked away the bottle in an inside pocket of his jacket. “I am wearing this only to carry the bottle”, he explained.
Across wine shops in the city, happy tipplers had gathered from even before the shops opened at 9 am. The state government has allowed liquor shops to open from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4pm.
“This is a wise step. The government should have allowed the shops to open before…it is not that liquor was not available to those who could pay the high prices in the black market. Now, at least the government can get some revenue”, said a middle-aged person as he emerged with his fill from a shop in Polo.
Liquor shops had downed their shutters since the nationwide lockdown started on March 25 while only shops selling essentials were allowed to open intermittently.
What stood out on Monday was the discipline at the shops with social distancing maintained meticulously, which has been near-absent whenever groceries and other shops were allowed to open. There were exceptions though, in some areas where overzealous customers gave the social distancing protocol a go-by.
However, wine stores located within Police Bazar, Iewduh, GS Road, Motphran to Shani Mandir, Mawlonghat, Anjalee Parking Lot and Paltan Bazar were excluded.
The sale was limited to three litres of foreign liquor and four litres of beer per customer.
An owner of one store, Wanri Jyrwa, said that instructions on social distancing were being followed strictly and hand sanitisers provided for customers.
She said that there was a high demand as the wine stores were closed for almost a month.
As a shop at Jhalupara pulled the shutters down sharp at 4pm, a youth arrived. He pleaded to be served but was refused.
“Bad luck”, he muttered promising to return tomorrow.
A few hours later, the government announced curfew for 48 hours from Tuesday morning after the first coronavirus positive case was reported in the state.
The youth would have to wait.
