THAT�S Mehroo Irani, Zinia Lawyer and Bakhtawar Chenoy, folks, the three beautiful ladies of Associated Breweries & Distilleries Ltd. They are drinking their top-selling beer (London Pilsner, what else!) at Russi Irani�s Mondegar Cafe on Colaba Causeway before going to the races. On dog day afternoons, there�s nothing like an LP in a tall, frosted glass to touch the right spot. The ladies obviously know beer better than anybody else in Bombay.

They could have beer in their air-conditioned corporate offices on the 12th floor of Bakhtawar at Nariman Point. But visiting a pub, or a beer parlour, is mixing business with pleasure. Besides, the LP ads. say �Live it up!� And why not! They were stepping out for a little excitement at the races anyway. So... here they are at Mondegar, a popular, crowded Irani restaurant, drinking LP and watching the hippy traffic going by outside while Eagles plays Hotel California on the LD jukebox inside. Another one for the road, mother? Not a pilsner, dear, but perhaps a draft...

They share the responsibility of the business that Noshirwan Muluk Irani, the man of the house, thrust on them when he passed away in 1985. He was a man of great vision and an extraordinary builder. Half the old buildings in South Bombay were built by Noshirwan in the Fifties and Sixties and named after his wife and two daughters. Then recognising the potential for a good quality beer in the Seventies, he started Associated Breweries & Distilleries Ltd. in 1975 at a factory in Thane and introduced LP. Mehroo, Zinia and Bakhtawar took over the management of ABD Ltd. after his death with typical Irani zest for life and adventure.

�People thought we would sell out, that we would not know how to run a liquor business, and a lot of feelers came our way,� reports Mehroo. �But I said no. I gave my daughters courage. I said all three of us would run the business. So what if we did not know head nor tail of it? So what if it was to do with liquor? We started by going to the factory at Thane and working from there. I had to give up my golf. (She is an impressive golfer, this Mehroo Irani, and a regular at the Willingdon and Chembur golf links.) But somehow we managed... headaches and all.�

They feel most normal about being in this business, though beer is not really a feminine drink. �We�re not conservative,� says Bakhtawar. �Women should drink, our father taught us that beer is like mother�s milk. We even encourage our kids to drink beer.� Zinia agrees. �People respect us for our knowledge of the product. When you know what you�re doing, your employees don�t think of you as a woman boss and feel uncomfortable.� Noshirwan�s construction business they left alone. �It is now dormant,� says Minoo. �Nobody wants to be a builder anymore. That line is not for women.�

Today ABD Ltd. brews and markets seven brands. Mehroo counts them: �London Pilsner, London Diet, London Super Strong 2001 Plus, London Super Strong 5001 Plus, Maharaja Premium Lager, Bulldog and London Draft. They have all been acclaimed for quality and have won international awards. LP, our flagship brand, was the recipient of awards at the World Selection of Beers for five consecutive years.� She talks about the other �firsts� in the company�s life. �Like London Diet, India�s first low cal diet beer, and London Draft, India�s first draught beer straight from the keg. Then there�s San Miguel...� ABD Ltd. has an MoU with a foreign company for the brewing and marketing of the world famous brand. �We brew San Miguel under licence at our Thane brewery,� says Mehroo.

The secret of ABD Ltd.�s success, the ladies say, is their dedication to excellence which they imbibed from Noshirwan. �Great care is taken at every stage of manufacturing as the emphasis has always been on stringent quality control,� says Zinia Lawyer. She describes her role in the business as the �jack of all trades�. �I look after brewery production, marketing, finance, everything... really,� says Zinia. She has 25 years� experience and was involved with ABD Ltd. from the day her father launched the factory in Thane. �He was alone and needed help,� says Zinia, �so I sat at his right hand side and worked with him. My mother and sister joined later. I�ve seen beer go through various stages in India. There�s nothing about beer that I don�t know, trust me.�

Bakhtawar, the younger of the sisters by four years, handles everything that has got anything to do with the government. �Beer is part of the alcohol industry and there are all kinds of issues involved like taxes, octroi, permissions and licenses,� she reveals. �All the companies are trying to make beer more affordable. Yes, it is very overpriced. Look at a good beer like San Miguel. It costs fifty rupees in a retail shop! We are working on the government. Trying to convince it that drinking beer is a healthy concept. But these days you cannot even take a deep breath without getting a licence for it!� Bakhtawar also looks after the general marketing of the beers, image and brand building, sponsoring special events, positioning at clubs.�

The sisters are close to each other and to their mother. They share her, because she lives in the same building with them, in a duplex apartment, and though they have separate households, and separate kitchens, they all have dinner together at least twice a week. But they lunch together every day. �We bring a dabba,� says Bakhtawar, who is the cook of the family. Rest of the week at home, Bakhtawar likes to spend time with her husband, champion horse trainer Bezan Chenoy. �We own 12 race horses and he trains about 50,� she says. �His work is like that of an Olympic coach, it keeps him busy day and night. I only meet him in the evening.� The Chenoys have two children, Darayius and Nazak, a son and daughter studying in England. Zinia, who is single, has a son and daughter too, Rustom and Farah. They are a happy and united family. On Sundays, all of them, Minoo Irani too, go to the races. �We don�t bet at all,� says Bakhtawar. �We are not so passionate about racing. But we rarely miss the races because we love the atmosphere. We even go to the Pune races in the monsoon.�

They go pub crawling too, their business takes them out often at night, mixing business with pleasure again. �We check out new places, and we have our favourites, like Geoffreys, Not Just Jazz By The Bay, the Bowling Co., Copa...,� says Zinia. She is not much of a beer drinker. �I work with beer from morning to night, if I drink it at a pub, I feel as if I�m still working. Besides, I am a malt drinker. I enjoy watching others drink LP. When I go to a pub, I look for the red bottle!� Bakhtawar, however, enjoys her beer. �I drink London Diet because it has lesser calories,� she says. And Mehroo Irani�s favourite brand is LP. �I love my beer,� she says. �When I�m playing golf, I stick to London Diet. It�s very popular with golfers.�

The LP ladies rise from their table at Mondegar, wiping the faint beer moustaches left behind on their lips. It will soon be time for the starter�s gun at the racecourse, and they want to be there to see Bezan�s horse take on the rest of the field. Russi Irani will not charge them for drinking their beer in his cafetaria. Naturally. It is an honour to have the three Irani ladies there. Mehroo stops on her way out to check what the sales of LP are like compared to the other beers. Where did Noshirwan come up with the name �London� from? �We have distant relatives in the Murray Hills of Rawalpindi in Pakistan. They have a brewery and make a lager called London. Noshir said, why not call our beer London Pilsner. Besides, we Indians still have this thing for the British. Haven�t you noticed how Parsis say �Apri Rani� for the Queen all the time!�