Joey’s Pub is closed because of the liquor ban; (below) the pub when the hills were heady

What’s Darjeeling without a drop to drink? Not half as heady a holiday hangout.

Just ask the gang of five friends from Calcutta cutting short its stay because of the booze ban. “What is there to do here after 8pm?” demanded Rahul Varma, 21.

The MBA student from Garden Reach arrived in Darjeeling with four classmates on Saturday with plans to stay a week. Till they heard of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s ban on the sale of licensed liquor. “We have decided to head back on Wednesday,” Varma told Metro.

The Morcha slapped the ban from Saturday in a bid to block the state government’s monthly revenue stream of Rs 3 crore from 19 off-shops and 54 licensed bars. Darjeeling going dry is already leaving visitors from Calcutta high and dry.

“I will think twice before I plan another trip to Darjeeling because of the ban,” said Calcutta-based US national Doug Riley, 38, on his fourth visit in two years.

The two most popular watering holes, Buzz and Joey’s Pub, cut a sorry figure on Monday. Buzz, below Glenary’s, was trying in vain to woo tourists with mocktails while Joey’s, near INOX, remained locked for the third day on the trot. “Nobody comes here for soft drinks, so no point keeping it open,” shrugged an employee at Joey’s.

There is free flow of locally brewed liquor like thongba and rakshi and many restaurants have started stocking up, but most tourists are reluctant to risk it.

“I would love some alcohol now, but I’m not that desperate either,” said Kaunteya Chatterjee, 30, a private bank employee from Calcutta, shying away from rakshi on the racks.

No wonder some owners of eateries forced to go dry are already plotting other possible ventures. “Alcohol accounts for more than 50 per cent of our sales. It isn’t easy to branch into other business in Darjeeling, but we may not be left with a choice by the Morcha ban,” said the owner of a deserted sip-and-bite stop.

The Morcha leadership refused to blink. “Tourists might be facing some problems, but our sole aim is to stop revenue flow into the state coffers,” said a Morcha leader.

Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh, however, told Metro that he did not support the ban on liquor, among other such moves by the Morcha.

Mansi Ahlawat, 27, a content writer taking a break, summed up the tourist blues: “This isn’t the Darjeeling we knew and loved.”

Film-maker Anjan Dutt, a Darjeeling loyalist, couldn’t agree more. “Darjeeling without liquor is just very, very wrong… extremely unfair. I called up friends there and it is an absolutely desperate situation. My friend Puran (Gongba), who runs Joey’s Pub, is without income for the last three days. Tourists are running away.”

Will you stop going to Darjeeling because of the liquor ban? ttmetro@abpmail.com

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“Banning liquor is against the cosmopolitan spirit of Darjeeling. It’s like declaring the place vegetarian. It’s quite tragic”

-- Anjan Dutt, film-maker