PRECEDENT 

 PRECEDENT is the scream every Lawyer and high ranking management auditor screams either at the opposing lawyer or to the public at large to escape a particular action. Perhaps it applies to all of us and not restricted the mentioned categories. The oft heard statement “if you let go when my elder brother did it, so should you let go when I have done it” more than drives home the power of precedent. When the issue of non-use of perfume and after shave mouthwash etc., by pilots as breath analyser was fooled into thinking the pilot was drunk, was published, all non-pilots dismissed it as not applicable news to them. However, having learnt the value of precedent, I was more alarmed than merely cursory glance of this news.

Being in the market for a new car on the fear that the authorities will one day find my car too old as per laws and crush it, I was made aware at point of a gun of the alternative fuels to stop enriching Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle east. Further, I had doubts if the manufacture of car batteries of e-cars polluted lesser at the  time of their manufacture. After being bombarded with Hydrogen fuel, Ethanol, I had a gut feeling that ethanol would be the future. This is the connection between my plans to buy a vehicle and the news.

 Ethanol is the same ingredient used in the drinks that one has at the bar. I feared being stopped on the road at night and asked to undergo breath analyser. If I had just filled up the car, the smell would be there. It was always there during the petrol days (and I loved it) but no one accused any person of drinking petrol and driving. What would be worse if I had run out of fuel and poured the bottle I had purchased for party into the car. The smell of fake scotch would definitely be in the air and on me. They would hand me the precedent of pilots if I complained it was my perfume or after shave. 

 

Reputation issue

I also predict one day my relative (it’s never a friend) would notice me walking into a desi bar (Country liquor) and sympathise that I am so economically run down that I cannot visit a middle class (if there is such a category)  or high class bar. If only he had accosted me to find that I was purchasing a carton of 12 bottle as emergency reserve for my outstation trip as Ethanol pumps were yet to populate the interior of the state. I don’t think it would have been the appropriate time to educate him on the merits of cooking with toddy like it is with wine in some countries. 

Coca cola Model of distribution

But what dawned on me later was the ingenuity of human mind and burning desire to earn money. If ethanol pumps are not there, the coca cola bottling model would prevail. For those who do not know, Coca Cola was dispensed at the chemist (there were no pharmaceutical companies then) as fountain dispensed cough mixture with improving taste over time. If you felt the desire for one you had to go to the chemist to buy one. Some marketing persons approached the company offering to bottle and sell it. As the company did not believe this would catch on, the licensed it for a pittance. Then the bottling history began worldwide. I expect the model to repeat itself here with vendors on the roadside selling alcohol for the cars spluttering on the road to a stop for paucity of alcohol fuel.

 

Phrase gets new Meaning

One for the road is the oft abused phrase to urge a person to take one more drink. However, now that meaning will be lost as it will imply the bar tender to point out the need to carry bottle of alcohol for your car in case you run out of fuel in those wee hours when few fuel stations will be open.Another phrase to stop being a drunkard and remain a social drinker was "Never drink alone". But now, my car was my drinking companion so I would never be drinking alone. In fact my car would guzzle 35 liters of alcohol and yet remain steady and never fight in a drunken stupor. I understand in the old days, the horses were also fed alcohol to make them run fast when needed in emergency areas susceptible to dacoity or even during war. In summation, what was found good for one horse power continues to be good for 20 horse power.

 

This news of Pilots really ruined my option of purchase of car in the future. I am known to predict things to such a level that my school friends call me Nostradamus II but predicting this was no joy. It was a personal stone wall unless….. a better breath analyser is invented. Perhaps I should concentrate on that now. 

End of article