Spirits of the past haunt Dhananjay Kumar's shop at R-Block.

Inside it is largely the same, like it was over a month ago; the same shelves from which Scotch tickled a drinker's thirst for malt. Even the refrigerator is the same, which, till not long ago held in its belly enough chilled beer to draw endless customers holding empty mugs. But today, the shelves contain cold drinks, biscuits, chips, soan papdi and Maggi. Open the refrigerator and one can almost see the chilled beer before focus returns and ice creams and cold drinks come into view.

It is like this at most other liquor shops now forced to sell cold drinks and snacks since total prohibition was implemented in the state a month ago.

While most liquor shops have shut down altogether, others have metamorphosed this way to live another day.

But the present is a poor reflection of the past when one compares revenue earned. Most shops are not sure they will earn enough to even get back the rent they are paying for their shops. "I pay Rs 30,000 in rent for this place and we now earn Rs 1,500-2,000 a day," said Dhananjay. "It is becoming very difficult to pay my staff and rent. Because it is summer, we are just about managing by selling cold drinks. But I am not sure we can sustain ourselves after this."

This correspondent spent around half an hour at the shop during which only one customer turned up. The shop-owner laughed when he caught this correspondent noting four CCTVs on the premises. "Do you think anyone is going to steal cold drinks? The CCTVs are not functional, we have cut the power supply," he said.

He went on to say: "Nitish ji should not have banned foreign liquor. We were paying tax after all. He has no idea how many people have lost their livelihood. Ban of country-made liquor was a good decision but Indian made foreign liquor should have been allowed."

Another erstwhile liquor shop in front of Hotel Chanakya has been turned into an ice-cream parlour. It also sells milk shakes, chips, Frooti, Maaza and Haldiram's soan papdi. The interiors are still the same. They've just replaced liquor on the shelves with the new fare. "We spent lakhs doing up the interiors. We are not fools to be spending more on redoing the interiors to sell cold drinks and ice creams now. Those days we used to earn Rs 1.25 lakh-2 lakh a day. We now earn Rs 1,000-1,500 a day. Is that a comparison? This is not fair. When the government failed to open shops on its own it put a blanket ban on liquor," said Kaushal Kunal, shop manager. The shop has just replaced the earlier signboard with one for ice cream and cold drinks.

Most of these shops have opened just three to four days ago. The government had offered to help liquor shop owners open milk booths in their premises, but till date no one has taken help.

Another liquor shop in the Kankerbagh area has turned into an ice cream parlour, also selling tomato sauce, vegetable patties, cold drinks, biscuits and chips. "Earlier, I used to earn Rs 12,000 a month, as revenue was higher," said an employee at the shop. "But now pay has dipped to Rs 3,000. Everyday, a fight ensues between my wife and me over how I will run the house or pay my children's school fees. We are not getting any customers. Why will anybody come here when there are so many established shops? Since morning, I have sold just two bottles of water, two patties and four ice creams. God only knows what we will earn by selling ice creams and cold drinks."

It remains to be seen how many liquor shops will start selling snacks and cold drinks in the coming days. There were 5,446 registered private liquor shops in Bihar, 2,471 selling country-made liquor and remaining 2,947 India-made foreign liquor. There were 424 liquor shops in just Patna district.