The late Busybee should have asked his Goan friends! >From the book "Jamva Chalo Jee" - The best of Busybee of 1994-95 in my Busybee book collection of Evening News snippets with illustrations by the late Mario Miranda. A lot of people have been asking me about the quality of toddy in Cochin. I am not an expert on the subject, far from it. Besides, the toddy that I consumed in Cochin was in the late afternoon, past 2 pm, when the sun had got into it and fermented it into a heady brew. Most of the smaller bars had exhausted their stocks, though the place we finally went to, had enough left. They even had two varieties, one of which had been tapped the day before and kept for more veteran drinkers. We did however at one of the islands , get a young man to climb a sloping palm and tap a little fresh toddy for us. But this was done more as demonstration in the art and craft of toddy-tapping. Tapping a tree at that late afternoon hour was a bit of a sacrilege, like plucking flowers and watering plants in the night, and only a small quantity, barely a half-glass was obtained. Having tasted toddy after a gap of a couple of years, possibly more, I would not like to venture an opinion on that. But in the bar, there was enough toddy to consume and enjoy. And the thirst engendered by sailing across the harbor in an open barge and under a hot sun, added to the pleasure of the drink. There was also the right atmosphere of happy bar-flies and several varieties of fish prepared in pure chili water. We dipped pittu, the Kerala bread , in the chilli water and ate it in between refills of the toddy. I have had other experiences of toddy drinking. They say it is best drunk at breakfast or brunch. I once spent three happy days at Oliaji's Dukes Hotel in Devka, drinking toddy in the morning and mowah (a liquor made from the mowah flower and sold by bottles at the government distillery) in the evening, in the company of Kamer Saleh and William Coutto, both veterans of the Times. Both of them have since passed away, which may not speak particularly well for the health-giving properties of toddy. The toddy came in the early morning, in matkas cooled by the morning dew and the sea mist, and it was as sweet as it can be without being neera. And with the toddy, we had Oliaji's famous breakfast of aleti paleti, baija chhobat, and fresh Bombay Ducks fried in rava. An experience I remember more fondly goes back to my childhood. It is of drinking toddy in the palm tree farms of Khan Bahadur Sir Dhunjishaw Cooper in Satara. I recall a picnic scene. Mats spread on the earth, the shade of the palms above us and the smoke emerging from the dry Bombay Ducks being roasted on the fire. I also remember the taste of that toddy, which I drank in good quantity, age being no bar. It is one of the things that I bless my parents for, that they had no inhibitions about their children drinking and growing up. Roland Francis Toronto