Okay,
people who don’t know Malayalam might be puzzled to see the title. It is the
Malayalam version for ‘What’s up in the evening?’. So, that sentence was the tagline
of an advertisement of an alcohol brand, I think so, because I never saw that
ad, but heard about it as it created a little bit controversies. So, it’s not a
new sentence to the Malayalies, the very intellectual, literate Keralites, who are
very much proud of their abilities and educational status. Currently they are
on the verge of getting number one position in many areas than in the
educational and academic section. Yes, I meant about the habit of consumption
of alcohol or the mammoth increase in the percent of alcohol consumption in
Kerala. The title mentioned above is asking about the program in the evening; I
should say, the ad is outdated for the present time, yup… the advertisement is
not that old, anyway not more than 10 years or 10, but the whole plot has been
changed. Now, each and every day of a lot of keralites starts with drinks, they
are not waiting till the evening; most of them don’t have proper consciousness
in the evening, that’s the truth. The change is amazing, horribly amazing since
the category include 10year old child to the 101 old. We can see unending queues
waiting in front of the beverages outlets patiently, surprisingly which you
will not be able to see anywhere else in Kerala, and they drink from morning to the
time to bed (a lot in the road side). ‘Pathetic‘ could be used to describe the
situation, but present situation…..worse than pathetic.
Alright, let me back to Kerala, the state
which is very much in front in educational, health areas at least in paper.
Recently the Raghuram Rajan committee report which dealt with the status of
states in India on Development, found that Kerala does not need any special
additional assistance from the Center as the state is one of the most advanced
state in India. The report is actually an icing on the cake as we have already
been in the list of 100% literacy and all and now Keralites conquered the
developmental area too. I really don’t want to discuss about the advancements
or infrastructure in the areas of health, education or development in Kerala,
the point here is this is one side of Kerala which is going forward (I’m not
aware that whether these advancements are real or only in papers), well I take
it as a positive sign and now take a look at the other side. Kerala is a small
state in India, size wise it stands on the 21st position in a
country which has 28 states. When we check population, it is on 12th
position with 2.76% of Indians in Kerala. That also doesn’t find as massive
even with that 12th position, it just 2.76%, yeah, it matters when
compare with the resources available for each person in small place, that’s a
lot of people in a small sized state, but it is okay. Now, take a look into the
revenue of KSBC (Kerala State Beverages Corporation), it is 150 crore per year
now, and it is growing to new heights. The most shocking revelation is 16% of
alcohol consumption in India belongs to the state Kerala, which means 2.76% of
total population and 16% of alcohol consumption, Wow! What a trend! Well, if it
just sticks to the drinking only and gone its own way, then there is no problem,
it is personal, but unfortunately the drinking habit is just a starter, it is
just the starting point of evil. Now, for everything that happens wrong in the
state I can blame alcohol, because it is the reason. Kerala ranked top in the
list of states which recorded highest crime rates in India under Indian Penal
Code, and alas……..it recorded a crime rate which is double the national
average!! Can you believe that?!! May be this just reminds me that literate
means nothing…..otherwise the power to reason does not reside on education, it
reside on an unaffected brain, which is not addicted or spirited. Human power
of reasoning makes us human, and people do crimes when they are not humans,
means the power to reason and the power to logic do not present in people do
crimes. I agree all people do crimes may not be belong to the category of
alcoholics, but the recent heinous incidents shows us that alcohol made the
convicts animals before they do the crime, which might made them to go to the
lowest level. Alcohol affects person’s morality that turns him or her into an
antisocial element. Murder, Rape, Accidents……………Verbal abuses, one just cannot
count on the crimes that done on the courage of alcohol that consumed……………. We
have to admit that the hand of alcohol in the rising crime rates all over the
world is visible. In a way or other 90% of human lives in the world is affected
by alcohol, probably the number can be 100%.
There is no doubt in the fact that
alcohol affects brain, ‘affect brain’ does not mean that it cause diseases to brain,
well, put the view that ‘alcohol cause disease or not’ aside, for now.
Consumption of alcohol surely affect the
functions of brain, since brain controls all the actions of a live being, it
affects all the functions of that one…postures to movements… thoughts to
actions… internal to physical matters. It affects all the activities. So effect
of alcohol does not limited to that single person who has consumed it, it
directly affects his/her surroundings. Severe consumption of alcohol damages
liver, affects memory, can cause various tumours; eventually slow the pace of
life. Let’s check the immediate effect of alcohol to the body. It first affects
one’s balance then disrupts coordination. Then has an effect on hearing and
vision, leads to loss of concentration, become drowsy. The person’s reaction
time increases that leads to slow reactions, fades judgment and reasoning
power. Precisely, that person is far away from the real world when he consumes
alcohol, but the sad thing is that he /she never going to accept this reality
that they are not normal or not in usual sense. No need to think more about the
reason for accidents due to drink drive; safe journey depend on the response of
the driver towards the things that happens
on the way, here all of his/her senses are affected, which leads to
miscalculations about everything on road and finally to accidents. But most of
the people would not agree that they are not fit for driving after drinking,
they are not aware that they are losing control over things. The people who
drive after drink not only betting on their own lives but also on the lives of
innocent people who are transporting through roads.
The
affected brain of a drinker would no more acts like a human being. Not all of
them change to anti social elements, but a lot of people do heinous crimes on
the courage of alcohol. Alcohol conquers over brain in such a way that they
would not be in a state to distinguish between right or wrong. There are a lot
of people in the world who commit crimes on alcohols, repent about that moments
later ,curse themselves and some on remorse
end their own lives. And there is a group of people who committed faults when they
were ’spirited’ and to hide those mistakes they had to do more crimes. Verbal
abuses, misbehaving, physical abuses ….about which most of the men does not
think in their normal state, is done by them in intoxicated state.
How can uptake of alcohol be a
symbol of status or class when it turns a human being into an animal? People categorize themselves based on the
quantity or the frequency of alcohol consumption. One can surely hear the
statements like ‘I drink at times’ ‘I’m only a social drinker/light drinker’ ‘I
drink only when I’m with my friends’ frequently. Well, we normally show
sympathy on intellectually challenged people. The difference between normal
person and them is they can’t properly understand, analyze and express the
things related to them and their surroundings and can’t take decisions on their
own, so they can be easily exploited. They are, not born with or due to living
conditions or accidents, a normal functioning brain. As a result they are not
able to enjoy or receive the things happening around them as such. Now see the
person, by the creator’s grace born normally or living normally. He or she has
given with a perfectly healthy brain to think with it and act with it. He/ she
can see this beautiful world, enjoy it, can enjoy their happiness, can share
their sorrows, can build their dreams, achieve their goals and can consciously
live their moments with family and
friends even that is good or bad. But in actual, what they are doing? In actual
when they are with friends, they don’t want to be self, they want to be
drugged, they don’t want to share their profit and loss with family or friends,
they want to share it with alcohol. It’s disgusting to think that one need the
company of alcohol to celebrate their friendship, their togetherness. I know
all are not alike, but the value of relationships does not change much with
people. I’m a person who loves to be with my friends. The happiness that we get
when we meet is countless. When we meet I want to be myself, and each of my
friends open up and share our minds, we enjoy our time together. It is really
shameful for me to think that somebody needs the help of alcohol to enjoy the
company of our closest ones. It is a mindset that created in our society that with
alcohol or with the spirit taken inside one can enjoy more. It is just absurd.
Alcohol consumption for a single time or daily, for some milligrams or more it
just derails your perception rate and taking your happiness from you. If one
need alcohol to celebrate a victory or condole a sadness with his/her family or
friends, it just the mockery of relationships. One can share the actual
feelings only when they are fully conscious, not when they are drugged. We can
see many food items in our daily life which are not suitable for different
types of people, for example; sweets to diabetic patients, ice creams or cool
stuffs to children or elder due to their health problems, fat containing items for cholesterol patients or people
cared about health and body …. But these food items are used by most of the other
people. So, here people take care to avoid some food items which are not
suitable for their health even though they are tasty and consumable for other
people who are with them. Even though that food stuffs are not good for some
people, those are classified as ‘food items’ and are not harmful to all. But
alcohol is injurious to whoever it consumes and it is a poison that kills
lives. So what can we say about a light drinker? What is that meant? How one
can consume poison even in light quantity? Alcohol is a poison, it is not a
permitted food item and there is no difference in taking that lightly or heavily,
it just can have its effects on one, no matter what the amount is. How can one
explain the mindset of people who are proudly announcing their habit of light
drinking? Poison never does any good, it always does harm, and here people
admire the habit of taking poison that not only kill people but also affect
their moral and social behavior. One who encourages a social evil is oneself a
social devil.
People under the charm of
alcohol never do understand the effect of their behavior and habit on the
people who near to him/ her, especially for the family. When these matters
come, suddenly we reach a conclusion that women/girls are affected by the
behavior of an alcoholic man most. That’s not completely true, but women face
more abuses from the drunken people. But humiliation that faced by all family
members is same without any gender difference. But in case of male members, it
is true that there is more chance for them to take up the habit of drinking
from the elder ones. The family of an alcoholic suffers a lot, most of the time
they become the laughing matters in front of the society, mothers, wives, daughters,
sons, and siblings … all are forced to live in the shadow of sympathy or
humility. Children are the main victims of this trend. How people, especially
children affected by the drinking habit of their close relatives is different.
Many of them feel embarrassed in front of their friends and colleagues by the
behavior of their close ones after drinking. Boys may take the habit of drinking
to their lives itself. But most of them humiliated by this and chose to hide
from others. Children who taught at schools drinking as a social devil and it as
negative surely have ashamed of themselves having such relatives. The physical
attacks, trashing by drunken fathers at home is common in many places. Children
who know drinking as a negative habit, and they can’t convince the same to
their relatives faces strong mental problems. Even though this is not quite
visible, but this is sure that a lot of children are facing such mental
dilemma, they feel inferior in front of their friends and society. Here I’m
giving certain situations happens around my surroundings, some may find this as
not serious, but this do have an effect on people – An embarrassed 13 year old
boy, when his class teacher saying ‘what is that smell’ after his parent left the meeting with his teacher, as he know
exactly what that smell is – A 9th standard girl bewildered in front
of all her friends when one of her friends saying ‘ your uncle/mama was in
great ‘form’ during the festival procession yesterday’ as all of them know what that sort of ‘form’
means – A housewife at 4 pm in the evening begging her neighbours for help to take her daughter
to hospital as the girl fall and seriously injured, and her husband is not in a
state to do his duty as still in hangover – Embarrassed newly wedded bride
as her husband and family says ‘anyway
you are not in the drunk yard now’ mentioning her father’s drinking habit
when she was complaining about some
household thing – An educated, working wife humiliated in front of her colleagues
when they made an unexpected morning visit to her house and see her husband was
started his ‘program’ even before, you can imagine what is the program – A
hospital admitted young woman looks at the hospital staff with apprehension and
bewilderment as her all male relatives
are in ‘good form’ even when they are paying a hospital visit to her– Child of
3 year old watching the argument between his parents as his father used to come
home after drinking heavily and throwing everything in the house – A teenage
boy is embarrassed in front of his friends as his father present in a family
ceremony speaking loud and argumentative after consuming alcohol – A shocked newly
wedded bride; after seeing her husband enjoying with his friends with drinks as
a non drinking husband was her single condition and she was promised that. One
can think, these are not very serious when considering the behavioral, moral aberrations
or the accidents or health issues relating drinking, but these are very serious
when considering the people who are living with this shame in their entire
life. A large percent of women and children living with huge pressure in their head;
they live with the fear that when they are going to be exposed, they live with
the question that why they are born in such a situation. They are the people
who are forced to live an undignified life not because of their fault. For an entire
family’s suffering, it is not needed that the person should be a chronic alcoholic;
the habit of taking alcohol a single time is enough to make an entire life’s
suffering. Lakhs of rupees that bring by an alcoholic to the family can’t erase
the pain and shame that they are facing due to the same person.
The reason given by many for
taking alcohol is to bear the stress or forget their worries. Actually these
people are finding a reason to drink. There is nothing like releasing tension
by drinking alcohol, that person know exactly he is doing something wrong and searches
for reasons to justify it . If people do drink alcohol due to tension, then it
should be women and children first to do that. The percent of women who are
highly stressed due to their husband’s or father’s drinking is high in number, and
these women are not convinced yet that drinking is good to relieve their stress.
There are people in every category who consumes alcohol; some are social
drinkers, some to the alcoholic category, and some chronic alcoholics. Gender,
religion, economic background, educational level etc. got nothing to do with this;
one can find all the category consumers in every social level. The tendency to
have alcohol is a mental problem, and then people blame their plight for this habit,
actually they are finding reasons to drink. People become mentally inclined to
the habit of drinking, some consider it as a status symbol, some found alcohol
produce more courage in them, some search solitude in it, to forget, to
remember,… for everything people need alcohol. Do they anytime think that they
are setting a very bad model for their own son and daughter? Do they think,
their habit not only kills them but also the dear and near ones to them? Do
they realize they are moving away from a good life that waited for them? Do
they realize that their habit affects their family members emotionally and they
are getting humiliated in front of the society? Do they realize that the
tensions they actually have in their life is their drinking habit?
Other thing that worries
is the habit of many employees who take alcohol even at the time of their duty.
One thing is the person who consumes alcohol
is not fit for work and the presence of same person at the worksite can affect
the work of his colleagues. So this invariably affects the productivity of that
firm. And at the resulting end this affects the economy of our country
negatively. But still Government is not at all moved by this. The question from
there should be like this ‘how can ban alcohol for this reason?’. If the institutions or the Government itself
took preventive measures to control the people who drink at their duty times,
there would be a great decrease in the percent of alcohol consumption. Here,
anybody can drink at anytime, anywhere and the plight of public places is
horrible, it is not suitable for a noble person to go to any public places
after noon. It is evident that the increase in drinking habit negatively
affecting our economy too, still Government sits with shut eyes.
An alcoholic kills himself, before that he
morally and socially degraded to an animal. The accidents which happen due to
drink drive are not only the effect of alcohol on human life. The alcohol which
went inside takes the morality of the person which led him to do brutal crimes.
The society delimits the status of the drunken person, of course its effect has
to suffer by his family too and they face humiliation. This creates the next generation
of alcoholics; some take that to forget their past condemned life and some to
make new heroic antics. Gradually this will create an anti social, morally
degraded society; I should say this is already visible. I don’t know how much
it is effective, but people always cry for public awareness by Government. But
Government can surely do one thing, complete ban on alcohol. I know, questions
arise like arrows now, like is it possible? Are you nuts? Do you think government
is going to stop such a big revenue source? Well, if Government understands the
healthy human being of a country is its great wealth, Government should surely
do that. If the Government understands the valuable human resources of the
country, dooming themselves by this evil, they surely ban it. If the Government
realize, alcohol is behind the 90% of crime rates and most percent of the suicides
in the country, the Government will surely ban it. It is the duty of a system
to clean the society if it finds something wrong. Here Government itself sells
poison to make revenue, which is ridiculous. I read in news paper that
scientists who support GM crops are crying about attack on Science when others are
prohibiting its implementation. The writer was saying Science is the process of
knowledge creation (or discovery) whereas technology is the means of knowledge
application. So it is not safe yet to introduce these crops. Some people ascertain
that we should not rely much on the credibility of GM crops in use. And hence,
should not approve GM crops as it can be a health issues later. The point is right;
we can’t trust such gene combinations until it experimentally cleared harmless.
Now back to Alcohol, from carbohydrate alcohol produce by fermentation, which
is pure science, but its production in industrial amounts by using different
methods is technology. And this technology visibly kills lakhs of people all
over the world every year. Whoever produce
this know it is as injurious to health, whoever sanctions its production know it is poison, whoever watching all this know
it is poison, but there is no such protests like at the time of GM crop issue towards this.
This issue is here for years now. There are many political parties, religion-cast
groups, social groups, and thousands of many other groups make huge roars
against issues like GM crops or Kasturirangan report or many like that without
even knowing what exactly are they or are they really good or bad. But here, there
present a potential evil in front of everybody which nobody is interested in
responding. It is a fact that there are groups working against the addiction of
alcohol, but does it really reach to the height as the real problem? There is
not much interest showed by any political party or religion groups for this
issue. And most of the time the entertainment world is like mocking at the
plight of affecting people, marketing their product with the help of alcohol.
The lack of much reaction against this is because of the dominance of male
gender in all social areas, in all social groups. It is a fact that, to respond
against something one should be clean, how many of the men in our society can
clearly do that against alcohol? No doubt, why the percent of alcohol consumers
in the world is not reaching 100 as half of the population belongs to female
gender which is the only relief. But the recent studies shows that the drinking
habit in women also rising like the temperature of Earth. So to react against, one
should firstly be free from that. If the leaders of all groups were free of
such habits we would have seen many such protests (Considering the tradition of
India, the leaders always takes decision here, and the followers like monkeys
repeat whatever the leader says),but that never happened. From the persons,
hold the power in center who allows the alcohol sale to the house wives, who
ignore the dominant husband’s bad habit are the culprits behind this social
dilemma. ‘Whatever I do, that will be okay here’ thinking of male society is
also the reason for such degradation.
It is always a person’s own decision what he/she do or drink, how
they behave, how they pose as an example
to their children, how they get respected by the society. It is a person’s decision
how he faces life, if he wants to be in the reality or in intoxicated state. It
is a person’s decision how he live, whether with dignity and with a happy
family or as a humor figure in the society? It is vested up on you what you
want to be, a good human being or a criminal? It is simply up on you whether to
take a glass in hand and to fall in the unreal world OR live in the beautiful
world that somebody created for us to enjoy, live and share our life with other
fellow beings while feeling everything naturally with our active senses. It
just depend upon you to decide whether you want to be a social harm and
headache to your family or well mannered social being and helping hand to your
family. It is truly a golden feather to your character that you are devoid of
any bad habit.
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