Teetotaller's house a treasure trove of liquor bottles

A teetotaller here is the proud owner of a fascinating array of liquor bottles.“I bet no teetotaller in the world has such a huge collection of liquor bottles,” said Mukund Pai, retired banker and now an expert collector.

His house on JPN Road near Gopi Circle is stacked with about 1,400 bottles. He displays them to guests, like a writer showing off his collection of books.

He hopes his collection will get him into the Limca Book of Records. His younger brother, the late K A Ashok Pai, was a well-known psychiatrist.

Bottles are arranged across two rooms like trophies. Pai initially began as a coin collector, and then reared rabbits. When he realised those were common hobbies, he gave them up.

“I wanted to do something unique and the idea of collecting liquor bottles occurred to me. On May 5, 1985, I picked up my first bottle: an Old Smuggler whiskey bottle,” Pai recalled.

He was working with Syndicate Bank in Kolkata then. Later, he added bottles from the US, UK, Singapore, Germany, Japan, Canada, Russia, Australia, UAE, Malaysia and Nepal.

When a bottle catches his fancy, Pai goes all out to get it. He doesn’t mind paying scrap dealers more than the full price of the liquor.

“I wouldn’t miss a single opportunity to add to my collection,” he said.
Many volunteer to gift him their bottles once they have swilled the booze. But some sell. “I also get bottles from waiters and airhostesses when I travel,” he said.

Once, on his request, a Lufthansa airhostess gave him many miniature liquor bottles.
At the John F Kennedy Airport in New York, he had marked his baggage ‘Handle with care’.
When the airport staff opened it, they found it packed with empty bottles. “On hearing of my passion, they burst out laughing,” Pai said.

Pai has spent about Rs 25,000 on the collection. “I am in touch with clubs and bars across the state. They tell me about new brands. I buy them and present them to my friends, and later collect the empty bottles,” he explained. No one in his family drinks.

His most expensive purchase has been a bottle of Royal Salute whiskey, at Rs 10,000. He struggled for months to source a bottle of Johny Walker Red Label. A friend in Bengaluru eventually helped him get it.