In defence of alcohol!

The other evening, there was a party at my son's place which is a frequent happening. The main purpose of such parties is to meet friends and it goes without saying, eat and drink or rather drink and eat. The stress is on drinking with friends which creates the right atmosphere for a joyful evening. Dost aur daru is a great combination. And most of drinking buddies also bring in a bottle of wine or a crate of beer. So there is never a shortfall of this elixir of life. As Benjamin Franklin has famously said, 'beer is the proof that God loves us and wants people to be happy'. No dispute on that!

Friendships blossom when you drink with friends. At the same time, it helps to make them more interesting. Another famous person Ernest Hemmingway has confessed, 'I drink to make people interesting'! Conversation flows effortlessly, anecdotes are exchanged and life with all the usual problems, becomes rosy. Nothing like a chilled beer on a warm afternoon which will change ordinary mortals into thinkers and philosophers!

My son is lucky in having a friend circle who think likewise. And he is more lucky that his wife, our daughter in law does not mind and joins him for a glass of wine occasionally. And they are pretty moderate most of the time, let me assure you. Made for each other I guess, this has made their bond stronger. No marital tiffs because of an occasional binge in the company of friends. This brings me to my own indulgence in this activity once in a while, my tolerance level having gone down with age. But it was not always so!

Back in time, as a young subaltern in the army (do not mind if I always talk about my army  life simply because that WAS my life), I could stand a fair quantity of alcohol without getting drunk. And mind you, I have almost never been drunk, believe me! Once at a party in our mess at a small Cantonment, as normal, we were having drinks. On that evening, one Capt Andrews, was the senior most officer present. He was fond of drinks and we juniors were giving him company as best as we could. It was already dinner time but he kept drinking. When I hesitantly reminded him, he strangely announced, 'we will have dinner when Rajput is drunk'! And he ordered the barman to serve a drink to me. I dare not disobey a senior, so I took the drink. But that was not the end;he ordered another drink for me and of course one for himself. This was rather too much for me but I still did not feel drunk.

And then an idea struck me;I will feign that I was drunk. When Capt Andrews ordered one more drink for me, I took a sip and then just slumped down on a chair talking gibberish. This tactic worked and Capt Andrews looked happy. He asked everyone to proceed to the dining table for dinner. I continued with my pretense and slowly shuffled to join others for dinner. As we sat down on our chairs, we noticed that Capt Andrews would never make it;he was fully and totally drunk!