Despicably dipsomaniac

Recently I was with few friends at a tea point when we overheard a couple talking, the girl asked the guy why he smokes so many cigarettes every day and his reply was overwhelming.

“What’s there in life if there is no cigarette, alcohol and women?”

I do not know about the girl sitting with him but I was literally shaken to hear that there is nothing in life beyond the three things he mentioned. For the moment let’s forget about the last thing and talk about the first two things in the list. 

Smoking is a habit, good or bad, taken up by youth as a style quotient and according to some surveys the average age group when people are starting to smoke is 14-16 years. From such tender age they smoke few cigarettes a day and this FEW will keep on increasing in number incrementally going to few number of packets a day and in extreme cases also resorting to drugs like marijuana. It is undeniably true that people smoking are spoiling not only their lungs but also of the people around them, women and children usually being most vulnerable. This is my trump card I’d play, when people argue that I oppose it as I have never taken a puff, to say that Cigarette has only worse things associated with it and have to be shunned.

Legally speaking, some countries like Norway have totally banned smoking in public places including bars and restaurants, while in other countries like India we have a ban on “Smoking in public places” but the implementation of the law is not so impressive. According to WHO (World Health Organization) estimates tobacco killed 100 million persons in 20th century, more than the two world wars combined and this war against tobacco is going on without much success to its credit.

Next in the list is alcohol which any layman can say is the most popular drink among present youth (to larger extent among men) in the world, surprisingly even in arid and semi-arid regions of India too this liquid flows so incessantly that I wonder what makes people so much captivated to it. Some regions boast some unique features and events in this regards, like in Chennai people decently follow a long queue in front of the liquor shops every evening to buy liquor, in certain towns of Andhra Pradesh there were protests organised by local men demanding more liquor shops be opened in their localities (one needs a licence to open a liquor shop in India), in weddings of Punjab and few other states more whisky flows than water and last but not least, in Tamilnadu the state run TASMAC shops selling alcohol continue to be a major source of income for the state exchequer.

A liquor shop scene in Chennai.

The non-teetotallers argue that, unlike smoking, drinking alcohol is not harmful to the people around and also there are medical proofs that limited intake of alcohol has some good effect on health. FAIR point. Also the government is getting large revenue which it can utilise for the betterment of the society certainly but what upsets me most is that this revenue is generated because several poor men are spending large part of their income on alcohol consumption which is pulling their families back into sheer poverty. In a country like India where millions of people find it hard to make their ends meet, to what extent is it fair on the part of government to make people prone to alcoholic addiction.

Now in case of middle class and rich class lads who find no trouble to spend a few thousands for parties with friends and ENJOY smoking and drinking, I would say government can hardly be blamed. In fact here even the alcoholics are not to be blamed but pitied with, because they are the spenders & sufferers too and at the end of the day what they get is nothing but hangover.

Let me explain, the guys and girls enjoy PARTY with friends, send few pegs down the throat and after being high they dance, scream, fight, beat & do several things which in normal circumstances they will never do as they are usually very timid and blame the alcohol for all their stupid acts done. The ice on the cake is, they don’t remember anything done while the teetotallers make fun of all the silly drama unfolded by alcoholics. Now who has more entertainment here? So if any of your friends are also turning too much to alcohol, please help them to face the world without any fears and make them more confident so that they can do all they want to without asking alcohol to do it.

Life is fun I agree, but it should not be at the cost of life itself…