20091027 - How to get an alcohol permit in Ahmedabad?

Ahmedabad is the place where Gandhi lived in his Ashram and is located in the state Gujarat. Out of respect for Gandhi, most inhabitants of Gujarat are vegetarian. In other words: in Gujarat it is difficult to find non-vegetarian food. This is quite a challenge for me, as I am definitely a carnivore. In the beginning of the trip, I really enjoyed the Indian food. However, by now I really, really, really need some meat!

But that is not all. Following Gandhi´s teachings, Gujarat government decided that alcohol is prohibited. This means that Gujarat is the only state in India where alcohol is prohibited. So a relaxing beer at the end of a long and hot day is out of the question.

However, there is an exeption: If you have a non-Indian passport / green card / PR status, you can get an alcohol permit valid for one month by going to a liquor shop at a large hotel.

So today we went to get an alcohol permit (please note that I haven´t had a single drop in 1½ week). Especially since an alcohol permit leads to another stamp in your passport. We went to a large hotel and had to go through a small door outside. No photography was allowed inside. We had to fill out a form, hand over a photocopy of our passports (the page with the photograph, the one with the details and the one with the Indian visa stamp) and provide evidence that we will be staying for a minimum of 10 days.
The permit costs 100 rupees. With the permit one can purchase a maximum of:

• 20 small beer bottles (330 ml) or
• 12 large beer bottles (500 ml) or
• 2 bottles of hard liquor

for 10 days. It is not possible to buy e.g. 4 bottles of beer, as all purchases have to be done by the full unit (1 unit = 10 small beer, 6 large beer or 1 bottle of liquor). After 10 days one can purchase the same maximum amount of alcoholic beverages on the same permit. Then the permit expires.

After purchasing the permit and the alcoholic beverages we went back to the hotel. However... it is not allowed to drink alcohol in public. As drinking alone is no fun, my room turned into the ´team bar´...