Tushar Mangl Media

What if the history of India could be read through a glass? In Toddy to Tequila , Sandhya Mulchandani turns alcohol into an unexpected historical guide, moving from Vedic rituals and indigenous brews to Mughal courts, colonial trade and modern distilleries. Her subject is never simply drinking. It is faith, pleasure, prohibition, commerce, class, power and the people caught between them. Have you ever wondered what your drink says about the country you live in? Perhaps you are sitting somewhere with a drink in front of you. Nothing dramatic. No palace. No Mughal durbar. No colonial club with men in linen suits pretending the weather isn't trying to kill them. Just a glass. You might be holding whisky. Or feni. Or beer. Perhaps a cocktail with a name that requires three attempts before you can pronounce it without embarrassing yourself. Perhaps it is toddy, poured from a humble container that has travelled a very long distance from the fashionable cocktail menus of modern India...