The blurred line between fun and depravation

Moving into the new millennium India was considered as the emerging super power comparable with US, Japan and China. A key factor for this prediction was the burgeoning growth of youth as a percentage of the total population. Come 2012, China is already witnessing some effects similar to the developed countries of the Western Hemisphere where the percentage of aged population is superseding the percentage of working population (youth). India is not yet expected to touch this threshold in the next two decades. But for India to realize this "advantage of youth" its youth need to understand the significance of the expectations resting on their shoulders and work for taking it to fruition. This brings us to the topic of fun and depravation; the blurred line that many youth fail to perceive!

For centuries mankind has been plagued with disasters caused by addictive substances. Most common of them being alcohol. For a chemical with a fairly simple molecular combination, it is quite potent and induces complex reactions upon intake! For most youth, the touch with alcohol begins as a fun activity and a step in the right direction for peer-acceptance. For many more, it is a "fashionable thing to do" and for yet others it is passed on genetically from similar illustrious parents. Whatever be the reasons for getting started, it is the sustenance of the habit by an individual that decides how good / bad it is. This being the case it is all the more important for youth to handle this habit with more care and ensure that they are behaving as responsible citizens.

Being a teetotaler I cannot comment much on the fun of drinking, but all the same I have been quite close to a wide gamut of drinkers and have shared tables with them many times. The sum total of all these experiences has still failed to impress upon me the virtue of having alcohol as a fun drink.
I repeatedly ask myself (and drinkers) how can any drink that -

* tastes yuck

* smells bad

* makes u woozy and act like a monkey

* helps u puke your fine dine

* misguides your moral compass

* makes u swoon and fall under the mercy of anyone around

* causes untold social embarrassments

* and gives a splitting headache in the morning

and so on and so forth, be considered a fun thing to have? Of course, it is fun for a guy like me who hangs around parties watching other people make fool of themselves while drinking OR for some guys who are "waiting to help" beautiful (but stupid) girls who drink too much and "lose it" OR for third parties who see a stoned person who is an easy target or robber / rape. Considering all the pros and cons, net-net, alcohol consumption is really a stupid way to have fun while paying through your nose for all the unwanted consequences post-drinking!

The really sad part is that I have witnessed so many girls who are normally intelligent, smart and appreciable but act like nuts when drunk. They are at the mercy of guys around them and who can really vouch for a guy who has a beautiful but stoned girl on his hands? He may not rape her, but what can he NOT DO in such a situation? I am surprised that such girls don't even consider these things before getting started down that path. So much for the women's cries of equality and progress! If this is progress, then what is the direction or goal that we are headed at? It is a different story when a guy is drunk. Like some literacy ads of last century in India said, "educating a man is educating a person whereas educating a woman is educating a generation". If this is the kind of education women are getting themselves what will they teach the next generation? Does India need 650 million booze filled monkeys by 2035? Many students who go for "higher education" in foreign universities act like it is the end of the world tomorrow and it is their call-to-duty to finish all the stock of booze at the nearest store. Entire nights are spent cracking bottles, shouting like lunatics and abusing each other. So much for "Masters" and "higher education"!

Personally, I feel the reasons for such behaviour is the blind aping of the Western culture. Many youngsters take it for granted that to be modern they need to act like the characters of popular sit-coms mouthing profanities in every alternate line of speech, accepting indiscretions & infidelity as a "cool thing" while pumping themselves with dope & booze. It is not wrong to be impressionable, but it is wrong to be impressed upon without sufficient analytical thought about the same. While such negatives are sponged-up, very few positive traits like being civil to strangers, sharing with the larger people, social activities, etc. are imbibed by the majority. Being self-centred and nuclear seems to be the rage of the day.

To all those who drink, smoke or dope I would like to close this write-up with a few questions to ponder over. How strong are you really if you have to smoke or booze to get over the everyday ups-and-downs that life throws at you? Are you so incapable of finding happiness within & outside without alcohol? When did embarrassing yourself become a virtue? What good are you adding to this world / country / family / self by boozing?