"Asi te whiskey peende ne." Modern Hindu Indian men can be defined by this phrase. Their manhood, their grit, their courage, their very essence can be measured by the number of black label shots they can gulp in a single evening. As they enter a party arena, after the namastes and Hi they head to the bar, asking for black label with soda, water, or on the rocks, or neat, and make a bee line for repeat shots until the bottle's bottom is up or the bar is closed. This goes on from the beginning of the party to the end. Yes, not to the end of cocktail hour, or dinner, but till the end of the party or as I said the bottles are bottom up or the bar is closed. No other drinks, no Kailua, no Martini, no liquor, they keep it simple. Only Black Label please. There is nothing else to a party. What wine, wine is for women and wusses. Drinking for drinking sake, not to shed inhibitions or to enjoy the entertainment offered in the party but drinking is the entertainment. A one liter bottle of whiskey has about 22-25 shots and it is not uncommon for four people to finish one bottle in two hours, thus each consuming 5-6 shots meeting the definition of National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's defintion of binge drinking - of 5 or more drinks in a two hour period.
While most Muslims are holding the line on alcohol, Hindu Indians have become alcohol-struck. Before independence alcohol was considered a vice and only the elite who socialized with the British, or the poor used to drink alcohol. The former drank imported liquors or wine while the latter drank locally/home brewed spirits like Daru, tharra, arrack, many dying in bootlegging accidents. Now alcohol has become the very essence of middle class social life. Women have joined the fray, as a declaration of their independence and modernity. Any many drink to the point of inebriation, and often drive after drinking. And spirits such as whiskey are the staple. The generous midlands of Indian men and women, as Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul says, are becoming even more generous and expansive, often jutting out of tight and minimalistic clothes of modern Indian women who proudly flout them on the face book, in postures that further exaggerate them.
Although it is difficult to relate rapes and other antisocial behavior to alcohol beause of lack of proper statistics, alcohol is certainly a contributor. About a fifth of psychiatric emergencies in Indian hospitals and 60 percent of injuries presenting in the emergency rooms are alcohol related. Alcohol related liver damage (compounded by a high prevalence of hepatitis B in India), brain damage, obesity, and diabetes are glossed over for the minimal benefit of limited amount of alcohol in coronary artery disease that is often cited as rationalization for alcohol consumption by the nouveau riche. Domestic violence is on the rise and many a family has seen their destruction due to alcoholism. Battered women keep mum for the sake of family reputation. And while in the past women used to hold the line on alcohol, the modern Hindu women proudly support their alcoholic men in their manly sport of drinking, "hamare inko drink karna accha lagta hai.”
The government is lax because of excise revenue and multinationals are raking huge profits in the name of liberalization. And religion and traditionalism that informed our social behavior have become matters of convenience. Social restraint or religious deterrence are a thing of the past, archaic. Yes, we do puja, we do jagran, we go to Vaishno Devi but didn’t Shiv Ji drink cannabis, didn’t tantriks drink alcohol, they argue. In fact, Hindu religious ethics have become secondary to religious ritualism to placate gods to give more and more so that the party goes on unabated and unrestrained.
And yes, people drink in the west, but the pattern of social drinking by middle class in the west is restrained and limited and not binging on spirits until bottoms are up. And even if they drink excessively do we have to follow everything western? But the alcohol juggernaut is on among Hindu Asian Indians. Maybe I an old hag, out of touch with modern pop culture, at least Hindu Asian Indian culture?
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