Behind the Scenes

More expensive than water, cheaper than everything else... When we were 22–23, we had slowly started making our way into the city center. (I grew up in the Rasulzade settlement.) There was a karaoke club next to the Nizami Cinema, and five or six of us would get together and go there to sing. Actually, Shaban was the one who introduced us to this kind of fun. He did most of the singing, while we joined in. Each table was given a microphone for three songs, and if I remember correctly, you had to pay extra for each song. So we would have serious discussions about which songs to choose so that we could impress the ladies sitting at the other tables as much as possible. The bill was also split between us like brothers. One time, our friend Pumba (his real name was Tural, but he looked like the famous character from The Lion King) protested: “What is this? I ate one Rafaello, sang ‘Искала’ twice” (he meant Zemfira’s song), “and you’re charging me 6 manats?” Six manats may not sound like much to you now, but for students in 2008–2009, it was real money. And yes, we were always short of money. But we still wanted to have fun. So whenever we went to that karaoke club, we always ordered the same thing to drink. Tonic! (That Tonic in the yellow metal can.) It tasted awful and gave us absolutely no pleasure. Why did we order it?! Because it was the only drink that was more expensive than water but che