Monday, August 10, 2009

Cheers!

I wonder if there is any society in the world that does not indulge in certain amount of excess with regard to alcohol. The wonders that a peg of whiskey or brandy, or even harmless beer can do to dispirited souls is known to everyone, and if ever I try to articulate the sentiments of these men and women, I would only fail miserably. Just a peg of whiskey is all that is required to transport a person to an altogether different world, free from the worries of the world. What a relief from the world of pain and suffering! One would not mind even paying a big price for it!

If there are people whose lives are heavily laden with burdens and sufferings they cannot bear, and take shelter with alcohol, then we might think it can be justified; but what if there are people who have no extraordinary pain or suffering they need to forget, and yet seek after bottles, just for the heck of it? When these become a compulsive habits which cannot be stopped at will, one is on the road to ruin, and he or she may then start counting the number of years or months that is given him or her. The harmful effects are known to everyone on earth except the people who are to know them.

The Santal tribals believe that ricebeer, which is home-brewed has divine origin, and it is said in Mare Hapramko Reak Katha, that Maran Buru taught his grandchildren the divine art of preparing handipaura, and that is the reason why even today a Santal would not take the first sip of the brewed ricebeer, without first spilling three drops on the ground, offering the first drink to Maran Buru, hapramko and the household spirits. But how has this divine drink come to be one of the most important and devastating problems of the Santal community is an issue worth considering.

I may not be able to say clearly what pleasure people get out of drinking alcohol, especially if it becomes a compulsive habit, and in order to remain normal they have to take a few pegs. A month ago, I was shocked to see one of my cousin brothers, who though blind, was managing a wine shop, but over the years himself became a victim of it, and when I went to visit him last month, I could not recognize him. He had been taken to my cousin sister’s place, in order to put him in a deaddiction centre; but they could not contain him, without half a bottle of wine, his body was shivering, and the was restless, almost out of his mind. They had to purchase a few bottles from the neighboring town, in order to bring him to normalcy.

I don’t know how many years or months my cousin brother will survive, and now that he has reached such a stage that without it, he cannot be normal, my cousin sisters feel that he could continue to live the life he had been living all these years, and die with the bottle. It is too late to redeem him, it appears. But the story is the same with many families, in every village and town. There are very few villages and towns in the country which is not touched by the liquor. There are alternatives to this, but no safe equivalent which can really replace the effect that alcohol creates. There is however one way how the people who are addicts can be helped, with love and care, which can keep them at arm’s length from seeking the momentary pleasure of the bottle.

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