Blog@GraceJunction

In my recent trips to down south, Kerala, I had the several opportunities for trysts with the laidback lifestyle of the Keralites. Except when they are on a strike or on a protest with loud ‘zindabaads’, the Keralites are noticeably very laid back.

I have my reasons for the same. For example, the workers in the fields; supposed to report at 8.00am; nearly idle their way to their work spots well past 8.15am and then you can suddenly see them resting again after ‘kanji’ at around 10.00am and then, though none of them carries a watch (at least they don’t show they have it!), invariably you can find them “all”, suddenly leaving their posts at 12.28pm. Such an impeccable and awesome sense of time! Though post-lunch period starts at 2.00pm, you can see them coming slowly to re-occupy their posts by 2.15pm. If you are at the spot, supervising them, you won’t even realize how and where they vanish suddenly at around 4.00pm for the ‘chaaya’! Around 4.50 pm you can see most of them lining up to wash themselves up before their procession back home! Perhaps they sigh and tell themselves, “At last, the end of another arduous day”! Yeah, arduous for sure, but arduous because of watching them! Oh what a life!

It’s a similar story in the government offices and other public institutions. The stories of the trade unions can be chronicled into encyclopedias and yet the emerging story-line projects ‘laid-backness’. I mean, they really enjoy life. As if it’s not enough that they live in ‘God’s own country’, a land which is flocked to by people worldwide, they eat good food and also relax and enjoy life as it slowly paces past them. Though in recent times, the impact of globalization has impacted the big cities and speeded up life there, even the big towns of Kerala have still preserved in them - the old time living!

However, that’s where the good news almost ends for Kerala - sometime around early evening. After twilight; to see what happens to this lush green land; one need just take a round by government run beverage outlets or other liquor stores. In fact, on weekends and holiday-eves, there are traffic jams because of the long queue of people waiting for their quota of alcohol. That queue is an equalizer for the semi-rich (not the rich, as they enjoy their excessive privileges as usual) and the poor. I was told that the area around my house has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol!

The scene is so bad that contractors do not promise starting up any new projects on a Monday, The reason is not rooted in any superstition or myth by any means. They don’t care which day it is as long as money will come. But the contractors are wary because they complain that half their folk don’t turn up for work, mainly due to hangovers! The women also remain absent on Mondays and the reason will scandalize most people. They are not sure they will be able to walk properly. Why? On holidays, their dead drunk husbands come home and batter them brutally enough for them to remain bed-ridden or at least home bound on Mondays!! Oh what a twist to sweet life!

 

Following is a discussion that ensued in a new Soul Café setting in my hometown. Sojan works for an NGO and so was well equipped with data for the discussion.

Sojan: The alcoholic trend in our state is getting from bad to worse with each passing year. Despite all measures by the government and the NGOs, there is only an increase in the craze and consumption! It’s said that Keralites spend more money on liquor than on rice: while the liquor industry is worth Rs 7500 crore a year, rice consumption is worth only Rs 2880 crore, notwithstanding the annual hooch tragedies killing thousands and making innumerable others go blind.

Me: Yeah, Kerala has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in India and is among the drunken leaders of the world, at a mind-blowing consumption rate of 8.3 liters per person! I heard about the consumption in the days leading up to the New Year’s eve, a whopping Rs.213 million worth of it! Preposterous! Why not? The government itself is facilitating it. I don’t understand why the government has to get involved at all in the distribution of alcohol!

Sojan: I presume the cited reason is concern for the quality of alcohol served. It seems countless people have lost their lives consuming improper stuff! Also, apparently the sale at these counters is rationed in one sense. But I think the reason in more commercial than social!

Me: I am sure. It makes more business sense to sell it from their counters and pocket the taxes and duties and the profits too than to let others sell it for profit and get an opportunity to evade government levies too.

Sojan: Successive Governments have failed in eradicating poverty, building infrastructure, ensuring drinking water to all, but they have certainly been generous in providing alcohol to all. They have never mulled increasing the tax on alcohol.

Me: Is there a tourism angle to it? Tourism is the only industry here worth publicizing.

Sojan: Oh yeah. In the name of increasing tourism in the land, the government will do anything. Having no other options to raise revenue and the kind of subsidies that it is forced to pay year after year; tourism is one big buffer under which it dares to take any kind of decision. I am told that the prostitution racket is thriving and flourishing in the shadow of the new liquor policy.

Me: Yeah, a heavy cost paid for the sake of better fiscal receipts! I hope that the government doesn’t assume that tourism is a natural corollary to alcoholism. Alcoholism is a demon and it affects not only the body, mind and productivity of the person but also affects the entire family too, not to forget, the society in general. The cost of treatment and the social cost paid are colossal in comparison to the revenue that the government sees filling its coffers.

Sojan: Yeah. Talking about its effects on the family, it seems the atrocities on women have increased four-fold in the last seven years. Almost a quarter of Keralite women suffer from some kind of violation. In fact I think that many more women just endure this violence and harassment very silently because of the nature of the relationship with the perpetrator. Most of it never is brought out into the open.

Me: And the children. I have read of how their life gets messed up in this imbroglio.

Sojan: The kids not only lose their dad to alcohol but also much of the money that would have come their way for their welfare and well being. Sometimes, the grown-up kids get dragged into the physical abuse when they try to protect their mothers from their alcohol inundated fathers. Several more commit suicide to call curtains to the never ending saga.

Me: Oh yeah, 9000 suicides happened in Kerala last year. That’s about 27 suicides a day! And there were 80000 reported attempts! And alcohol is a major reason for this. Many of these drunkards show off their manliness before their women but do not have the spine to face the financial mess they get into because of their habit and finally they resort to the pathetic getaway of suicide.

 

Sojan: The cases of drunken driving and the accidents that ensue are now almost a permanent matter in daily news reports. They say that 60% of the road accidents happen due to drunken driving.

Me: What about the premature death that alcohol brings about? The damage that it does to the heart and the liver is not an unknown fact anymore. I even read about increased chances of rheumatoid arthritis in the youth because of drinking. Moreover, even in the fight against AIDS and HIV alcoholism is classified as a high risk factor since it makes way for casual sex. And then, loss of man hours!

Sojan: Alcohol is also the ‘gateway’ for drug use. It is sad that even when attempts are made to educate people and make them know about its ill-effects, only a few pay attention to it.

Me: But tell me Sojan, why are these facts the way they are?

Sojan: I would take the liberty to say that there is high literacy but not high education.

Me: I am sure the average Keralite will not take welcome that comment but the fact that despite all the evident ills and the voices raised up against alcohol, alcohol initiation has come down from the age of 28 in the 1980s to just 18 today, should make the thinking Keralite contemplate before he retorts or reacts to your comment.

Sojan: The Keralites are all literate and reading but somewhere along the way, the values have bled away. In the cities, very young children are taking up alcohol.

Me: The children of alcoholic parents are more prone to pick up these habits early and the fact that they are picking it up earlier only speaks about the increasing waywardness displayed by the adult population.

Sojan: The trend is so bad that many of these young people get so addicted that they steal and tell lies at home for the money. The slightly more grown up ones spend more than they earn and end up taking loans to support their habits. 18% of alcoholics lose jobs in 1 year. Once jobless, they get an authentic reason to drink more!

Me: Looking at the general age of initiation that you were mentioning earlier, I think most of the young people pick it up in the hostels.

Sojan: Yeah. Ragging is one big place of initiation. Most of them take it up under peer pressure or for ‘need of approval’. Some do it just for fun. The pub and dance culture makes alcohol as a natural corollary for sure. Its a greater problem with our youth vis-à-vis the youth of the west because our youths do it more for a ‘kick’, while it is more of a dietary custom for the westerners.

Me: I am sure the media plays a very major role in influencing the lifestyles of the young. With ‘good times’ and ‘manliness’ and ‘true celebration of success’ projected with drinking of alcohol, the young are easily buying into it. Surrogate advertising has resulted in liquor/cigarette/tobacco brands being promoted through soda, distilled water, apple/grape juice, cassettes, CDs, sports goods and even readymade garments of the same name!

Sojan: Movies, TV, advertisements, radio, prime location hoardings all play their role. Interestingly, though the age of initiation has come down, the incidence of people who are much older and picking it up has also increased substantially. The reasons are various. For example, places where natural disasters and collateral damage to lives and property has occurred have often been observed to end up with a very high increase in the alcohol demand.

Me: Oh, in that case the financial crisis has caused damage across the globe and so do you think that global intake of alcohol will increase?

Sojan: That cannot be ruled out at all. Alcohol is the most widely used anti-depressant. Females too are increasingly on the alcohol roll and it has become socially acceptable too. When they take on it, they really get into it.

Me: It is sad. It is really scary to think about the mothers that the future generations will have. What kind of values will they imbibe not to speak about the alcohol itself that they will absorb from their pregnant mothers!

Sojan: Social and family acceptance to occasional drinking encourages the youth to embrace it even otherwise. Alcohol is now part of marriages, birthdays and other parties. These youngsters later on resort to drinking to overcome anxieties rather than facing life and overcoming obstacles with their own skill-sets.

Me: What’s the use we talking about this? Is there anything anyone can do?

Sojan: Many voices are surely rising up across the globe against alcoholism including various government and even UN sponsored programs.

Me: We need much more than all that. The Bible says that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging. The book of Proverbs and stories of other Biblical characters portrays a very strong stand taken by God of the Bible against alcohol. I would take the liberty to say that it is not literacy that we need, nor even education, but a fear of God and his statutes. That alone can bring this pandemic under control. Kerala has lost that reverence for God.

Sojan: Now that you have cited the Bible, doesn’t the Bible in a way refer positively to wine. I think most people use this reference and take it as an approval.

Me: God will not lead his people into evil is the bottom line. Alcoholism is truly evil. We don’t even need a Bible to come to that conclusion. It is being harked about anywhere and everywhere. How then can we assume that the Bible approves of alcoholism?

Sojan: In statements where a little wine is being referred to as good for the stomach!

Me: There are over hundred references to wine in the Bible. Often the wine referred to was unfermented grape juice while the fermented kind is always condemned. It is only the fermented wine that causes drunkenness and addiction. I have heard of even Jesus being called a drunkard by the liquor lobby. Paul summarizes it well when he says that all things are lawful for a follower of Christ but he shouldn’t be enslaved by anything. I think followers of Christ should refrain from anything that might offend others or encourage them to sin against their conscience.

Sojan: True. I can’t imagine a Christian who himself can’t give up alcohol advising an alcoholic to give it up just because he can’t master it.

 

Me: A true commitment to Christ is a ‘very sure’ way out for the nastiest alcoholic and also the social drinker. I think it takes a little more than pure human grit and resolve to come out of it ‘for life’. Once out of it, it is important to become positively useful for others too and the course of Christ provides avenues for precisely that. Moreover, taking help of others is no way going to downgrade a person or his commitment. Also, there are organizations that work among the alcoholics and there are citizen’s groups which do the same.

I think there can be no two opinions about the place to be given to alcohol. I was talking to an alcoholic field worker the other day, and reminded him that the little that he earned he was giving it away to the arrack shop owner while his wife and children, who too had some right over that money, lost the benefit of his hard work during the day. And then, what did he himself get? He got drunk and lost control over himself and finally got beaten up by people and nearly killed.

There are volumes written on this subject already by many but readers, if any of you is trying to beat this habit, the sooner the better. You can keep justifying your decision to drink all your life, while alcohol will keep mocking you and mocking you till one day it will blow your top. Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging – words of King Solomon echoing across the centuries. God Bless Soul Café.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Geo, Soul Cafe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.