Lesson: Don’t drink in a car with a stranger

One of the most chilling incidents involving alcoholic intoxication was reported last weekend when a man who was ‘chilling’ over a bottle of wine or two or three or four, ended up being left in the cold. After having more-than-regular doses of the plonk at an establishment in Gurugram‘s Golf Course Road, he bought another bottle to drink inside his parked car. Warning bells should have rung when he reportedly paid ₹20,000 – one assumes in soon-to-be-defunct ₹2,000 notes – for the bottle of good stuff even though it was priced at ₹2,000. The man at the other end of the counter pointed out his mistake and returned ₹18,000. That was the only honest encounter the sloshed gentleman would have that evening.

It turns out that while he was imbibing his wine in his car, an affable stranger came up to him asking if he could join him in the vehicle for a round of drinks. And as any sot worth his or her salt knows, company – even the company of strangers – is welcome when one is on a bender. And so, indeed, it was. The funny bit being that after a point, the stranger told the drunk host to leave, with the man forgetting that he was actually in his own car. The newly acquired drinking buddy sped off with the man’s car, ₹18,000 cash, laptop and mobile phone. Moral of the story – don’t get drunk? No. It is, don’t drink with affable strangers in a car.