The Scot Shots: The Scottish Tongue!
In the land of astounding landscapes, chilly weather and the sound of bagpipes in the air a dram of whisky is just the thing you want.
Its very fascinating how these three fit together in a jigsaw perfectly. I mean if you were to listen to a bagpipe anywhere else in the world it would just be noise to your ears. If you have your scotch whisky when you are back in your home country, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate its taste, smell and feel as much as you would in the land of Scots. Say that same thing to a Scot and they’d swell with pride and go… ” Ou buh daats tru! Scotch whisky is noh made anewherre else en dey wurld!” And you instantly know they are right! Just by the sound of their English.
Image source : perceptivetravel.com
So when was it that I really felt like having a whisky in Scotland?
I was travelling in a group with a tour guide – Brian – around the Highlands. We were almost at the end of our trip having gone from Inverness, Loch Ness to Isle of Skye and back; On the way back to Edinburgh he stopped the bus at a cafe for a coffee break and announced. “I’ll let yous haav a brreak of an hour here. If yous caan be baak by fourr therrty please!” So we got off the bus and stretched a bit and I went straight to the cafe which was an open outlet rather than a full restaurant. It only had a couple of tables set up in front of it with mounted umbrellas over them.
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I sat at one of them sipping my coffee when Brian walked up to me and said “So you lev en Endia or do you lev here en Scotland?”
‘I live in India; In Delhi to be precise.’
“En Delhi. Aand wat do you do en Delhi? Aer you e student or aer you wurkin?”
‘Ohh, I wurrk… Sorry… I work therre.’ I answered wondering what was going wrong with my tongue! It was like his accent was slowly getting to me. And I couldn’t help it.
“Awright. Ye know I haav seen de shows on TV wherre dey show hou de trains in Endia aer full of peopal. Some even haang on et and some climb on to the ruf of the train. Many people aer dying bcoz of dat aren’t they?”
‘Well, yeah there is some truth to that I wouldn’t deny. But I think India is much more than what you see on TV. You should come and see it yourself to understand.’
“Umm…well I don wanna bey cheeky abouud et buh…you see…Here en Scotland everethin es so orrgenized…Look aat de trraafik. Evereone follows ruls. Buh en Endia I haav seen therre is just no orderr. Hou do you maaneg lyke daat? Hou does everethin wurrk ouut on de road?”
Image source : wikimedia.org
At this moment I couldn’t help laughing! As much as I wanted to explain I just felt its much easier to play along and let him have some fun. So I said…
‘Ohh I don’t know. It just works out on its own. If you need to get your way in the traffic you just honk or shout and do what you have to. You don’t wait for anyone or anything. You just do it as and when you want and everything else falls in place. It works for us without order! But I think rather than me explaining how things work there, why don’t you come there and visit a few places. India is beautiful you know!!! ‘
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At this he looked a little flustered and gave a hysterical laughter before saying
” Ehh…No buh Endia es noh on the way to ane place you see. So lyk Singapore es on de way tuh Australia so I can drop der fur a day or two buh Endia es noh on route. Aand to bey fraank Endia es noh on my go-to lest ef you know wht I meeen. So I dunno ef I will go to Endia. Buh who knows!! Who Knows!!”
This time I was a little upset. So I told him ‘No. You need to want to come to India and you should. You don’t drop over on your way. You come TO India. Plan a tour and stay there for a few days.’
“Aye! Aye! Buh et es noh on my lest you see… “
This was when I thought ‘Ughhh…My coffee is not working anymore with his theories. I need some Whisky to digest this!’ and walked back to the bus with him listening to his idea of ‘Endia’. In my defence the weather was cold for me and it was windy as well so I was cold and the whisky would be just right for me. I decided I would visit a Whisky place as soon as I was back from the tour in Highlands!
I’ll take you to the Whisky place in my upcoming Scot Shot!
Don’t want to stop reading? Read the next Scot Shots: Scotch Whisky Experience Here!
Feature image source : rusconsul.org
