Drinks & Beer

Taking the outside air temperatures (27°C at 8am, up to 50°C during the day, 35°C at 11pm) into consideration, it is obvious that drinking, buying drinks, going to refrigerator etc. are very common daily activities. As most of you probably know (unlike one of the recently arrived trainees), tap water in India is not drinkable on any condition. Therefore every trainee needs to buy bottled water on their own. It's hard to estimate my daily water supply, but it definitely is more than 4 litres per day, approx. 2,5l of bottled water + 1l of juice at the trainee house, 1l of filtered water at work (one is not so thirsty in the air conditioned office) and something for lunch. So generally even more than 4 l. BTW although safety of unsealed bottled water is believed to be in question, you can hardly find seals on the bottles any longer.

2-day shopping for 1 person.

Beer
Of course, the main reason for writing this post was to have a look on local beer menu. The leading brand is undoubtedly Kingfisher. The company is actually running quite a versatile business - they brew beer and operate domestic Indian flights ("Kingfisher, India' only five star airline"; website).
There are 2 main types of Kingfisher: Premium and Strong. Premium is something like Czech 10° beer, Strong is comparable to 12° beer, containing almost 6% of alcohol. Both are good, Strong is really delicious! Also, I checked their website and found Kingfisher Bohemia... probably a Czech recipe:)
Good news is that in Punjab they have the cheapest beer (and alcohol in general) in whole India. 0,6l of local beer cost ca. 1 USD here. You would pay 2USD in Prague. And around 8USD in Amsterdam:) Seriously.

Kingfisher. In a high-end bar in the centre of Chandigarh.
BTW the owner of Kingfisher is referred to as the King of good times.

Another good local brand is Thunderbolt. However, Kingfisher is King(fisher) and that's it. One more to mention: Haywards. Something like Gambrinus in taste.
They also have a wide range of international beers available: Dutch Heineken and Mexiacan Corona are probably the most spread ones. Honestly, Corona with soya sauce is not my cup of tea.
I haven't found any Budweiser or Pilsner yet.

Liquor shops
You cannot buy beer or any other alcohol in normal shops - you need to find a "beer, wine, liquor" shop/stall, which has a licence to sell it. Besides, restaurants and hotels need the licence, too. So sometimes it happens that you go to a restaurant, or even 4-star hotel, to enjoy a chilling pint of beer, just to find out they do not offer it at all. This weekend we went to a billiard sport club (what a place to drink a beer, right?), but they only had lassi (yogurt based kind of fruit shake, a little sour by default) and soda. Cultural difference. Apart from the licence thing, you also cannot drink alcohol in public, which is a common practice in many Europeans countries anyway.

Inside the freezer in the trainee house.

Fresh lime soda
Although it is basically just an ordinary lemonade, I got obsessed with it. They do it sweet, salty, or mixed. Sweet is the best. 250ml glass costs from 5INR (2CZK!!) on the street to 20INR in nice fast food joints, to 80INR in clubs or posh restaurants. In either case, it is a reasonable choice!

Me and Georg having fresh lime soda (among others).

Hard stuff
The taste of local youngsters is different from the Czech appetite. Whereas it is more about fruit flavoured vodka, herbs drinks (vivat Fernet:)), wine, and mixed drinks in the Czech Republic, these guys seem to prefer rum and whiskey. When they do not feel like getting down fast, they mix with Coke, or go for Breezer.

Trust me, this guy has had enough.

Czech corner
Ani si to clovek neuvedomi, ale cele se to tu dost toci okolo piti - neprijemnost je, zejmena kdyz vecer dojde a neni kde koupit nove. Tak jenom par vet k tematu:
Celkove musim rict, ze co se tyce piti, tak mi tu nic nechybi. Snad jen mineralky, ktere tu nejsou k mani... ale pivo je skutecne vytecne a osvezujici, takze mineralky se mohou prominout.
Prestoze to v prepoctu patrne bude "v norme", a prestoze jsem jeste nedelal detailni analyzu, je nepochybne, ze v pomeru k prijmum naklady na piti oproti CR vyrazne stouply. Zejmena v obdobi zaludecnich potizi a horecek byly ovocne dzusy jedinou zachranou - a zrovna ty jsou na mistni pomery spise drazsi, resp. srovnatelne s evropskymi cenami.