Book vs bottle
 Let
every sip
of alcohol
taken by our fathers
husbands
brothers
and sons
turn into water
in their mouths
(With apologies to Salman Rushdie)
Oh you know this champagne is only for outward show, the moment it
touches my lips it turns to water, (Gibreel Farishta justifies his drink
to Rekha Merchant, in The Satanic Verses. )
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the
Spirit; (Ephesians 5:18 King James Version)
Alcoholism is another curse left on us by the European barbarians who
invaded our country and tried to destroy our culture. For the Europeans
drinking was a part of their normal life. Along with their languages,
their life styles, their customs and dress we embraced their drinking
habits too and tried to out do the Europeans.
In her book Nobodies to Somebodies, Kumari Jayawardena quotes from
Major Thomas Skinner, “The worst of all innovations was the
establishment of an arrack tavern in the very heart of the village.....
and soon where there had been quite contentment, was nothing but
brawling:...crime was on the increase....”. Quoting from John Capper, a
coffee planter she writes, “It has become an enormous evil and is
rapidly gaining ground...taverns are established ...almost in every
village....I have known districts where some years ago not one in a
hundred could be induced to taste spirits, where drunkenness now
prevails ....”
In a way, we cannot blame the Europeans for making us a nation of
drunkards because it was a handful of our own countrymen, who had made
most of the profits out of selling alcohol and then later invested such
ill-gotten gains into more respectable business ventures.
Our society has been brain-washed to believe that drinking alcohol is
a sign of manhood; to treat a person who does not join you in a drink as
anti-social, or a godaya. It is this culture that makes fathers proud to
let their little children take a sip from their glass, watched by
equally proud mothers. It is the same culture where a doctor preaches on
television that drinking even in moderation should be abhorred, and then
serves drinks at functions organized at the state institution headed by
him.
Alcoholism became a problem only when it was commercialized. Now it
is the manufacturers and the traders who are pushing people to consume
more and more alcohol, so they can increase their sales. It is probably
this type of business that brings in ‘filthy lucre’.
A villager would tap a coconut or a kitul tree and part of the sap
could be allowed to ferment and then a few of his friends would gather
under the tree in the evening for a drink off a coconut shell. It is
only after it became commercialized, when toddy and then arrack was
manufactured on a large scale, that the motive was to make a quick and
easy profit, that more and more alcohol was produced. And the business
created the demand, which went on increasing. The ready availability of
alcohol is one of the main reasons for the increase in consumption.
It is true that the Veddhas did not consume alcohol, nor did they
brew it. It was only the more civilized who introduced alcohol to them.
The Kumbha Jataka in the Jataka stories explains the origin of
alcohol. Alcohol has been with man since about 10,000 B.C., long before
man discovered writing and began to write books. But the time has come
for us to replace the bottle with a book.
To consume alcohol our people can always find an excuse, a reason, an
occasion.
Men drink when they are happy. If alcohol is to make man joyous, he
does not have to spend money to get more joy. Men drink when they are
sad. Then they begin to cry like women, after they have had a few
drinks. Men also drink when they wish to celebrate some victory, and
also when they are defeated. Men drink when they are tired. They believe
that it drives their tiredness away. These men must be having a
different physiological and biological constitution than women in our
countries, because women can recover from their tiredness without the
help of alcohol.
Men also drink when someone else is paying for it.
I believe that on all such occasions, a book can help us relax, ease
our pain or tiredness, much better than alcohol can, and without causing
any harm to ourselves or our near and dear ones.
We in our country would be drinking about 80 million bottles of
alcohol a year. If we can give up at least 10 % of this quantity, we can
easily buy 8 million books for our children.
My article is not to preach against drinking, but to plead with those
who enjoy a good drink to replace at least one bottle with one book,
this season.
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