For generations, Delhi's young and restless have flocked to dark little shacks outlying the main university campus for a swig of the freedom tipple -- 'chhang' or Tibetan rice beer.
Available at the Tibdabs - abbreviated from Tibetan Dhabas - a mug of chhang kept them company through many a hot and lazy afternoon away from the tedium of labs and lecture theatres.
But an official ban on the sale of chhang from the famed mini-Tibet of Delhi at Majnu Ka Tila, a little distance away from the Delhi University campus in north Delhi, virtually signals the end of an era.
According to Delhi Police, chhang, available at Rs.10 a jar, is not only full of health hazards but is also becoming a social nuisance as it is uncertified liquor.
Current and former students were Tuesday mourning the death of a sub-culture that has survived almost 40 years.
"After 40 years, they suddenly decide that this is causing law and order problems?" exclaimed Suneeti Srivastava, a student of English who, though not much of a drinker herself, enjoys hanging out with her bunch at the Tibdabs.
The sprawling Tibetan settlement of shacks and lean-tos in Majnu Ka Tila, along the banks of the Yamuna river, is a city within a city, distinguished by prayer flags fluttering on rooftops, a remarkable spirit of survival and the cause of freedom of their brethren in Tibet.
Living in exile in a ghetto-like settlement, the Tibetan community numbers close to 5,000, making a living out of selling woollen garments, apparel, momos (stuffed dumplings), noodles and chhang.
Images of the Dalai Lama and Buddha statues fill the little shops that attract students, drifters and those seeking cheap sustenance.
According to Minu Parthasarathy, a former student of Delhi University, the shops may still survive but the atmosphere would never be the same without chhang.
"We DU-types (Delhi University types) would spend lazy afternoons having mugs of chhang and horsing down noodles sitting on the little stools," Parthasarathy remembered with a wistful smile.
"You have nothing against serving alcohol in bars? Nobody ever fell sick of chhang in my knowledge, only excess of it like any other liquor."
--Indo-Asian News Service