Kinnaur and Mountain Dew

Indian greetings are mostly associated with chai. Our way of showing respect and greeting is to call people over for a cup of tea. Whenever someone visits our houses, as far as I can remember, chai is the first thing we offer, and it has been the same for generations. All my memories associated with guests start with chai.

I currently reside in Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh, a beautiful terrain in the Himalayas. I am a part of a project called Charkha Project and working on the marketing and capacity-building aspects. As we started a survey to understand the conditions of weavers in different villages, and to collect data for weaving activities, I am finding amusing things every single day. In one day we mostly cover one village and visit 30 to 40 people. While visiting houses, like my previous experiences, I was expecting chai offerings from people, but on the very first day when we visited the first house they gave us two glasses of full Mountain Dew it was a blessing at that time because it was hot that day so I thought they must be being considerate about hot weather. Then we visited the 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th houses, out of 37 houses we almost had Mountain Dew in 10 houses. Now I realize it’s not related to the weather. That day I thought about my previous experiences whenever I visited any place with the team we always used to buy Mountain Dew for some reason especially since the assigned driver of CSR always had it we all knew that. But I thought it was his habit. Now I am having some different thoughts. The cold drink has become an inseparable part of Kinnaur you visit any house they will ask “Will you have some dew? ”…

Thinking about that I asked my colleague who is a local here why is it so famous. He said, “It’s just how it is, when we were in college coca Coca-Cola used to be the most popular drink because the flavor was somehow stronger than other drinks but 10-12 years ago Dew suddenly became the favorite drink of Kinnaur. Before people used to ask for tea but now it’s Dew.” So I felt somehow relieved that I was not wrong about chai. After learning about the popular use of Dew, I started to search for the story of Dew’s launch in India about its invention but what I came to relate to instantly was the ‘Dar ke aage jeet Hai!’ phrase in the advertisement of Dew and I suddenly remembered- as children we also used to say it a lot. The image associated with Dew has become the image of mountain people who love adventure and are living in a tough terrain. So is that why Kinnauri people love Mountain Dew?

I don’t have a specific answer and neither do they, but someone here even the elderly people ask for Mountain Dew with alcohol. They say it goes best with alcohol- apparently that is what it was invented for (the invention story of Dew is that it was made to mix with alcohol). So that can also be a reason (Having evening drinks is common in Kinnaur).

But again, I was pulled back to the thought of the mountain dew image which was supporting my experience in Kinnaur. Kinnauri people take very much pride in being a Kinnauri and it is a common belief here that people who are not from Kinnaur are not that trustworthy or somehow very very different from Kinnauri people, which I can relate to as being a ‘Pahari’ we always think that we are most humane people in the world (which I also used to support deep down in my heart or maybe it’s still there but suppressed). In Kinnaur here we even have a specific word for people from outside ‘Koche’, every single person out of the boundary of Kinnaur is Koche. So do the people of Kinnaur see dew as more of their drink or as Pahari’s drink? 

Does a specific soft drink choice say anything about that place? It can be about their habits, I am still trying to make sense of that or maybe it’s already making some sense for you guys.

While writing I realized in our village frooty, slice, limca, and Mirinda brands are more popular and preferred by all. We were told that Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the hard drinks and mostly preferred by alcohol drinkers so even when we wanted to buy cola we couldn’t because all the shops belonged to our uncles or obviously to someone who knows us. So what does it tell about our place, alcohol is hated there but there were a lot of alcoholics there. The ultimate responsibility of adults was to keep us far away from any drink which even slightly relates to alcohol.

It was a cultural shock for me to be offered a cold drink in a remote village instead of tea…but does it even matter, slightly yes but not that much (I am not considering health issues). People still offered something is more important.

Remember this: In Kinnaur, if someone invites you to stay for tea, it means they have a very close and intimate relationship with you. We only had tea in 2-3 families where we already knew someone. So if you are in Kinnaur and getting offers for tea, it means they have accepted you as a close friend or someone who can share the same food and drink as them without causing offense.

One of the big reasons for offering Dew to different families is the caste system. The upper caste can have cold drink at your place if you offer it in plastic material. I am not sure if popularity of dew has anything to do with it but cold drink is one thing which can be shared among castes here.

Why am I writing about this cause I felt surprised, amused, and odd at the same time after realizing this, and isn’t it exciting to know that a soft drink can have so much space in our daily life. which is also making me wonder what kind of drinks are popular in different places and if they are related to the social and geographical conditions.