HUBBALLI: The Supreme Court’s order to ban liquor serving joints along highways has put the shutters down on Hubballi’s iconic and heritage wine-selling shop. Ironically, when Pinto Wine Land, located near the railway station, was set up in the 1900s, there was not even a road in front of it.
Today, the heritage liquor joint is located on NH 63 on Gadag Road. For many years, it has served the who's who of Hubballi. In the 1900s, the British officers who were attached to the railway works in and around Hubballi never missed visiting the wine shop. The buyers had to write their name and address in a book called ‘royal book’ before the purchase.
Mohan Pinto, the fifth generation owner of the unit, says the shop has been operating in the same proper t y for over 100 years. “We have licence renewal records since 1900s. In the late 1800s our forefathers moved here from Goa and since then we have been settled here. Before 1900s, the outlet was run by women members of the family and it became a tradition even after men from the family took over the shop. In British records dating to late 1800s, there is mention of the women owners,” he said. Mohan’s wife, Lona Pinto, a phycologist, is one of the partners in Wine Land and helps take care of the business.
“No one forced me to work from the shop. But I started working in the shop soon after my marriage,” she recall ed. It also helped women to feel free to come and buy liquor from the outlet, said Mohan.
The state government’s effort to denotify some of the national highways and state highways passing through the city is now the only hope for the Pintos. “When a liquor selling unit is closed, a large part of employees and families attached to it also suffer. We are hopeful that the government will come up with a solution,” he said.