Hard sell on soft drinks

Offbeat

 The lobbyist representing the soft drink firm purred contently. He had either just eaten the cream or had something up his sleeve which, he was sure, would blow me off my feet, all of my 80 kg plus.

 And the opening gambit was impressive enough. India is progressing, he declared, immediately tugging at my patriotic heartstrings. It is an assertion that no good Indian can ignore and I picked up my ears to give him my undivided attention.

 But the second line was nowhere as good as the first: you know India is getting somewhere by the way soft drinks consumption is going up.

 Gone are the days when Indians had to hide their face in shame at international forums when they found that even insignificant, little known Latin American countries which went to war with neighbours over football matches, beat them in per capita soft drinks consumption.

 But what