As I sit nursing a bad hangover and a severe alcohol induced cold, I was wondering where I picked up this habit and went down the alcohol memory lane.
The first time I had liquor was when I was a student in my undergraduate program in Coimbatore. Me and a bunch of class mates who were to become glass mates had gone on an experimental basis to a bar called "Gautham bar" near our college. We didn't have bikes and our budget was really small and so we walked to the place. We had never tasted alcohol before that ever and we were all excited.
There were 5 or 6 of us and we ordered a bottle of beer. I do not remember the brand. It was the 750 ml big bottle, that one gets even today at all bars and state owned liquor shops in Tamil Nadu. All of us shared the beer and as with all naive and inexperienced drinkers talked among ourselves about how bad it tasted and how it had no effect at all.
The second time there were 8 of us and a quarter bottle of Vodka. The same experience of not feeling any effect though we could now brag about how we had tasted alchohol. That was the miserable state of the teenage mind - bragging about a habit that was going to cause multiple head aches, puking sessions and was definitely not something wives and girl friends were going to be happy about.
And then the incident happened. The college elections were on and all the parties were wooing voters with parties that included liquor and biryani. Can you see - our politicians start young - they understood from a young age that all Indian men want in exchange for their prestigious and history changing votes are liquor and biryani! And it works to this day!!
So one party was throwing a party and my friends went for it. I didn't go that day, I don't remember why. But when my friends were back two of them were sloshed - the meaning of the word sloshed should be described through a picture of them taken on that day - cause they were the epitome of "sloshedness" on that day. Me and my other non drunk friends put them in the room and locked them up since we had to go for dinner.
When we came back a warden was standing outside the room. What had happened was that one of the fellas wanted to take a leak and was banging the door in drunken stupor and was generously giving out obscenities that caught the ear of the warden who had chosen the exact time to walk by.
He took our names and said we could wait for calls form our parents - though it never happened. We opened the door to the room and found our friends lying on the floor - hold your noses - in a big pool of puke. We pulled them out threw them in the shower, cleaned the room and vowed never to drink again.
The next week me and one of the fellas who had experienced the worst sides of drunkenness the previous week, went to the state run liquor store, shared a quarter bottle of Vodka with sprite. I can't believe we did this back then. Both of us looked really small, short and him super skinny. Its a wonder how we even managed to sit at the tables there, which are normally filled with hard drinkers mouthing foul language and are usually completely drunk. It is on this occasion I was amazed by a scene. An old man walked in got a quarter bottle, took a single swig and finished the entire bottle; he then had a little water from the water packet and left - all in a matter of a minute or two. I was amazed.
When we finished our share we walked to college and I remember my friend at that time in his drunk voice - "Mani, please talk in Tamil man, why do you speak in English when drunk? " I always laugh about it - because even today when I'm drunk English becomes my first language.
This will be part on of the series on my blog titled the liquor chronicles... Cheers...
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