Smuggling booze into Kuwait
To top off three days of being an excellent host, my pal Christian gives me a selection of six of his favourite German beers as a reward for my having run the Berlin Marathon. Classy.
From Berlin, I must travel to Kuwait to make a pitch to an oil and gas company. The beverages go into my check-in luggage.
Arriving in Kuwait, I clear immigration and collect my suitcase, which then goes through a customs scanner. As with other facilities in the airport, these machines are operated by Malayalis (as a half-Mallu, I can tell).
It's evening as I get to my hotel. I settle in and order room service, wanting to crash quickly: I've run 42.2km the previous day, and the pitch meeting is at 8:00am.
My standard late night hotel meal - grilled chicken and cheese sandwich - arrives and I think ooh, a cold beer would be good with that. Not the nice German ones; those were to be shared with friends back in Delhi. I open the minibar and pull out a Heineken.
It's non-alcoholic.
Instinct tells me something is wrong and I turn to the internet.
"Is Kuwait dry?" I ask. "Yes it is, you joker" Google replies.
Adding that grave legal consequences may be visited upon you for even possession of booze, let alone smuggling it into the country. I'm guessing the airport Malayalis let my beers through in solidarity with a fellow Indian.
I see only one solution - evidence destruction. Six beers are downed in under sixty minutes. For abundant caution, I put the empties in a bin and leave them outside someone else's room. Always thinking.
Was I slightly rough around the edges at the meeting the next morning? Maybe. But I still had my freedom. And my lovely German beers.