Sunday, June 20, 2010

"Eat Drink & be merry"

It was summer of 1989, I just wrote my high school examinations and was off for holidays to one of the fixed summer destinationation "AMBALA", to attend my second cousin's marriage. The great punjabi marriages, kukkad, botal te meat sheat!! wow!!. All these years before it I wanted to try my hand on the bottle and gulp it down, like a bollywood star, but never had the guts to do it. Now here was a chance I was all by myself, no parent, no sibling with me. I was rubbing my hands for such moment. I joined the drunkers party and started with a beer. Frankly my first reaction was to spit and leave as taste was too bad. Then suddenly an elderly advise came which said, "Pe ley pe ley, je mithi hondi te saare na peende". Suddenly the "macho"(of Rab ne mila di jodi) woke up in me and started my alcohol journey.
Its been nearly 21 years since then and I have tried my hands at various brands, various types and various tastes of alcohol. In this lustful alcoholic journey all childhood beliefs and restrictions of auspicious days tuesdays thursdays ekadashi ........... vanished and one line mantra became the philosophy of the day "Eat drink & be merry".
For last one month or so now I have been feeling some uneasiness in my stomach, which initially I tried to link it to various things like gastric problem, new wheat or any thing other than alcohol. Finally after family push and really uncomfortable stomach I went to see the doctor who finally told me what I never wanted to hear "NO ALCOHOL" not even a single drop. Oh God, I gushed, how can I live without it. But thats the twist, that is the only way I can "live", because Doctor completed the philosophical quote "Tomorrow we shall die".
Actually the quote is ""Eat Drink & be Merry, tomorrow we shall die" I only chose to follow the first part which eventually led me to a point almost to the second part.