Indian culture intoxicated...for teetotallers.
What??? you boozed...!!!??!! Go brush your teeth...where the hell are the chewing gum? wash your face you dumbo...someone might see it instead of smelling it...go go go...on the double! hup two three MARCH!
Thats some of the typical reactions one gets after a booze episode in India. Why is it so? Of course, orgies are different altogether...but a simple and dignified drink followed by a deep discussion with friends could also evoke similar responses even from the lesser of the initiated...hehe, look at me...talking as if i am an expert... :) hope you got my point.
Please dont get me wrong here...i am not for crazy limitless merry making under the influence of alcohol. I am merely a supporter of the effects alcohol can have when taken in limited quantities and with the people who matter. Anyways, why is drinking such a taboo here? Smoking i can understand should lead to concern because one manages to spoil ones own health as well as the other innocent non-smokers around. Drinking alcohol is more humane...and in limited quantities, it can be quite cool.
Upon some analysis, some things came to light...if you are aware of the fact that drinking alcohol leads of quick dehydration, it makes sense for people in hot climates not to drink. Thats why historically, people in the Arab states did not drink...i dont think they even had any local liquor/toddi/arrack or anything...if they did, it was very limited in availability and popularity. Guess one can apply similar logic and arrive at a scientific conclusion why thats the case in India which i suppose is predominantly a hot country for most of the year.
But no, i think the major reason that some people drink might have been the intermixing of cultures...
If you look at present day USA, can anyone attribute an unique culture to it? tough job for sure...well, India was the most popular country at the start of the previous millenium...and it did manage to attract its share of greedy pigs who wanted to loot the country out of its natural wealth...of course, i am not indirectly referring this happening to USA now...thats an entirely different story...as i was saying, people from all over kept coming in and spreading their influence...India was a major sea trade country...part of major terrestrial trade routes...so, what we now term as "Indian Culture" is really not the quintessential indian culture...maybe the southern states were less affected than others...but you see what i am getting at here...what used to be the culture of India got mixed and cleaved with other culture...it kept happening constantly for some time.
Ok, enough diversion from the topic...as i was saying, boozing is taboo in many places.
Some points to ponder with the current background that we have...
....
Indians are an educated lot now...the importance people give to education is paramount. So, how tough is it for the educated mind to understand that boozing is really not such a bad thing afterall? Amazingly, its the educated lot of yesteryear (the so called brahmins) who brought forward some of the current taboos...eating animals, boozing, sex...abacharam abacharam!!!!
....
India produced the kamasutra...such an advanced and divine work for its time...so, what the hell was the problem with boozing??? if sex was ok, then boozing also should have been...the orgasm might have been higher and deeper when a little intoxicated. I have not read the kamasutra myself...but if there is no mention of boozing before sex or something similar there, then it probably got censored on its way through the ages...
....
Currently India is growing like i dont know what...people are getting educated quicker than the govt can keep up...people are aksing questions...cities are growing faster than the infrastructure...damn...i dont know where all this is going...but, i am sure there will be a phase...maybe we are there already...where one generation will be totally hippy and outgoing while their parents will be dawdling with religious conventions and silly superstitions. Are we there yet?
....
Anyways, i just have one piece of advise...when you decide to socially drink (yes you will...eventually), please do it with "Comfortably Numb" of Pink Floyd running in the background...
Thats some of the typical reactions one gets after a booze episode in India. Why is it so? Of course, orgies are different altogether...but a simple and dignified drink followed by a deep discussion with friends could also evoke similar responses even from the lesser of the initiated...hehe, look at me...talking as if i am an expert... :) hope you got my point.
Please dont get me wrong here...i am not for crazy limitless merry making under the influence of alcohol. I am merely a supporter of the effects alcohol can have when taken in limited quantities and with the people who matter. Anyways, why is drinking such a taboo here? Smoking i can understand should lead to concern because one manages to spoil ones own health as well as the other innocent non-smokers around. Drinking alcohol is more humane...and in limited quantities, it can be quite cool.
Upon some analysis, some things came to light...if you are aware of the fact that drinking alcohol leads of quick dehydration, it makes sense for people in hot climates not to drink. Thats why historically, people in the Arab states did not drink...i dont think they even had any local liquor/toddi/arrack or anything...if they did, it was very limited in availability and popularity. Guess one can apply similar logic and arrive at a scientific conclusion why thats the case in India which i suppose is predominantly a hot country for most of the year.
But no, i think the major reason that some people drink might have been the intermixing of cultures...If you look at present day USA, can anyone attribute an unique culture to it? tough job for sure...well, India was the most popular country at the start of the previous millenium...and it did manage to attract its share of greedy pigs who wanted to loot the country out of its natural wealth...of course, i am not indirectly referring this happening to USA now...thats an entirely different story...as i was saying, people from all over kept coming in and spreading their influence...India was a major sea trade country...part of major terrestrial trade routes...so, what we now term as "Indian Culture" is really not the quintessential indian culture...maybe the southern states were less affected than others...but you see what i am getting at here...what used to be the culture of India got mixed and cleaved with other culture...it kept happening constantly for some time.
Ok, enough diversion from the topic...as i was saying, boozing is taboo in many places.
Some points to ponder with the current background that we have...
....
Indians are an educated lot now...the importance people give to education is paramount. So, how tough is it for the educated mind to understand that boozing is really not such a bad thing afterall? Amazingly, its the educated lot of yesteryear (the so called brahmins) who brought forward some of the current taboos...eating animals, boozing, sex...abacharam abacharam!!!!
....
India produced the kamasutra...such an advanced and divine work for its time...so, what the hell was the problem with boozing??? if sex was ok, then boozing also should have been...the orgasm might have been higher and deeper when a little intoxicated. I have not read the kamasutra myself...but if there is no mention of boozing before sex or something similar there, then it probably got censored on its way through the ages...
....
Currently India is growing like i dont know what...people are getting educated quicker than the govt can keep up...people are aksing questions...cities are growing faster than the infrastructure...damn...i dont know where all this is going...but, i am sure there will be a phase...maybe we are there already...where one generation will be totally hippy and outgoing while their parents will be dawdling with religious conventions and silly superstitions. Are we there yet?
....
Anyways, i just have one piece of advise...when you decide to socially drink (yes you will...eventually), please do it with "Comfortably Numb" of Pink Floyd running in the background...
posted by Maharaj at 7/27/2005 04:52:00 AM
5 Comments:
wo will set the limits ?..as much as u try to rationalize the drinking habit, its practicality is not so much for our tropical weather, even if it is, far undervalues when havin to put up with social consequences of drunk driving, dip in morals, reflexes, addiction, casual sex, teenage pregnecies, deprived families, beating hubands.. the list goes on...overall affecting productivity of a nation that is already near 3rd world! ours is a country that thrives on a spiritual plane...we have enuf festivals to socialize, enuf gods to pray to, family to support in times of need..so we dont need to ape the west in taking refuge in drinking for solving our very own self created problems or social demands! havin said that, nothin beats a white charradnay on a cold winter nite with pasta dinner!
Oh yeah...i agree alright...who will set the limits? it has to be the self i guess...i did mention the required disclaimers somewhere in the article...no overdrinking...no stupidity...losing morals and stuff is a little extreme! all that crap about drinking to get your troubles away from you is filmi masala! people do it of course...i have seen many...but again, thats because they cant think...poor dudes. and unfortunately its the stupid masala which makes the news...a cool dignified drink never hurt anyone is what i have seen with fellow thinkers. and thats exactly what i am propounding!
I will agree with most of what you say. But I will still stick to "Avoid alchohol as much as possible". Let me tell you my reasoning:
A person who has never before had alchohol, stumbles into some sort of calamity, say like, he loses his job or someone dear. Then he may cry or spend his time brooding over in silence but will not indulge in excessive drinking as he has never done it before.
A guy who already has a touch to alchohol, might, in some rare cases , indulge in excessive drinking much to the embarassment of others. Of course he can control himself 99% of the times, but the 1 % of time when he loses control is when he loses everything perhaps.
For example, my dad once told me the story of his colleague who unfortunately drank a lot at a party and started shouting ill things about his own boss. An otherwise normal man , but who had a drinking habit (that too a casual drinker), unfortunately happened to have a little excess and started to blabber.
And you know of the nonsense Ponp did when we went to Goa. I do recognize that he perhaps did that on purpose, but after he did what he did, he utterly lost all the respect I had for him atleast.
I am not against casual drinking or smoking. But these are habits which easily addict a person. Hence it is best not to "Try" them and then "Try" to stay away as well.
As far as growing up etc. is concerned, let me tell you this:
If you wear a dhoti and walk in the street everyone in US will stare at you.
If you wear a sleeveless and walk in Chennai everyone will stare at you.
As simple as that. It is nothing to "Grow Up" really. You just get to see something you have never before seen, and so everyone stares.
Drinking/Partying etc. are all not yet the norm in India atleast. Hence for sometime until they become part and parcel of everyones lives, these things will be seen, and are nothing uncommon or something for which we should be ashamed of.
Cheers
cb
I agree with the excessive drinking thing spoiling the persons life given the wrong time and circumstance. 100% true. I have seen so many more apart from the example you mentioned...
But if someone can try it with the consequences in mind, and is sensible enough to keep himself or herself under control (tough thing...but i have seen many examples of that as well), its cool i think. i mean, it adds another dimension to life...
Depends on what a persons expectations are on how ones life should be modelled...or whether it should be modelled at all...well...i dont know how to explain it...Haha...bloody our country is so complex...i dont know how to explain it.
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