SOCIAL drinking is increasing by the day, and there is not a party I attend that does not serve liquor. I have no problems of liquor being served, but about how liquor is drunk. In our country, the whole idea about having a drink is either getting drunk or becoming high.
We have no idea about social drinking, about having one drink, or a maximum of two, and stopping just when one feels good. Sometimes it’s not just at parties that some drink. The worst is when they start drinking alone.
Quite often the one who drinks once a week, starts enjoying the daily tipple, first with friends and then by himself and finally fights a losing battle with the bottle. This was what an addict said after a session at an A.A meeting: “Alcohol first gave me wings to fly, Then took away the sky.” Another quoted the Japanese proverb: First the man takes the drink, Next the drink takes the drink, Then the drink takes the man.
Once a man returned home stone drunk. His wife was furious because just a week earlier he had promised to break the habit bit by bit. “What about your promise,” she asked angrily. “Aren’t you trying to discard it?”
The man answered that he was trying his best, but he was proceeding in stages. It was just like chopping off the very word ‘habit,’ he explained: when you cut off the initial ‘h’ from the word, ‘a bit’ persists. Knock of the ‘a’ and the ‘bit’ remains! “Hic!” he burped at the end.
Replied the wise wife, “When you finally decide to run away from the ‘bit’ you will find that ‘it’ is still remaining!
Sir William Osler, eminent Canadian physician, was lecturing on alcohol. “Is it true,” asked a student, “that alcohol enables people to do things better?” “No,” replied Sir William.
“It just makes them less ashamed of doing them badly!” Mukund: “Why do you drink so much?” Raj: “I’m trying to drown my sorrows.” Mukund: “Are you succeeding?” Raj: “No, I guess I’ve learned how to swim by now!” And here’s a warning in old English, read it carefully:
Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame, When once it is within thee; but beforeMayst rule it, as thou list: and pour the shame. Which it would pour on thee upon the floor. It is most just to throw that on the ground, Which would throw me there, if I keep the round..!
And before I close, just a bit of advice to those who boast saying they have a good liver because they can hold many drinks. My dear friend, don’t be fooled; if you can hold many drinks, that means your liver is bad, and it would do you good to stop, before you become an alcoholic..!
