Quite unquestionably the best alcohol originating in India and amongst the best dark rums in the world, the expression "cheap and best" is both apt and derogatory to this elixir of life. It isn't the best because it is cheap. It is cheap, dirt cheap. *And* it is the best, the supreme best.

When the comforting warmth makes its way down your gullet, Old Monk brings life around you to the pace at which you can savour it. It proceeds to distort, but not disturb. It is life-affirming without ever being life-altering. Old Monk shows you what's beautiful, and blurs out the rest. Old Monk is that bittersweet windy drizzly evening that you only recollect in sepia-hues.

This phrase is not just a reaffirmation of the supremacy of the antiquarian and geriatric, it is the battle-cry of the retro-cool movement, it is an emphatically unreasoned rejection of the modern and a convenient way to end most arguments.

You like Ilayaraaja more than Rahman? Old is gold.
You think Vijay Merchant was a better batsman than Tendulkar? Of course, old is gold.
You still wear a Casio digital watch? Old is gold.
You get sentimental about Giant Robot? Old is gold.

The preferred cologne of Indians men for more than 20 years, simply because it was more or less the only one easily available. Attar was the other option.

Rubbish.
A bunch of garbage lies.
Popularized by kannada superstar Upendra in his movie Upendra.

A fixture in every Indian uncle's drink cabinet - called into action on those rare occasions when whiskey was somehow not appropriate (or unavailable).