<p>My father was a strict teetotaller, and I too have always followed his path and still follow it. Besides, I am a great admirer of Gandhi and dislike smoking and drinking. My first encounter with drunkards was when I was a pre-degree student. </p><p>When I discovered every one of my best friends was very fond of Toddy, I disapproved, fought with them, and demanded they stop drinking. None of them was ready to heed my advice and quit drinking, so I unfriended them all. My best friend was the one who vehemently argued in favour of liquor consumption and repeatedly asked me what was wrong with toddy/liquor consumption. </p>.<p>“It is intoxicating, and it is bad to have intoxicating drinks and drugs,” I said, as I always did. </p>.<p>“I like intoxication, and how can you say intoxication is bad?” he asked <br>nonchalantly. </p>.<p>For me, such arguments are ridiculous, but my best friend told me that <br>it was my argument that was ridiculous. I snapped all connections with him, and it was the beginning of my reclusive path.</p>.<p>I used to attend all social gatherings in our neighbourhood until liquor started making an appearance on almost all such occasions—housewarmings, weddings, anniversaries, deaths and death anniversaries, etc. And I started withdrawing from all social gatherings until I was a complete recluse. I retreated into the world of books. Writers such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelly, Arnold, Browning, and Tennyson opened a new world too beautiful to shun.</p>.<p>Then came along Hamlet. Of all the plays of Shakespeare, Hamlet is the one I read again and again, and his dialogue, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” reminded me of my friend, who questioned me about how I could argue intoxication is bad. Hamlet shattered the walls of my reclusiveness. I realised that if I didn’t like the ways of the others, shunning them altogether was not the best way to prove my point. </p>.<p class="bodytext">When Hamlet shattered the walls within me, my wife, who is socially gifted, shattered them from the outside too. She loves many of my qualities; being a teetotaller is one of them. When I tell her that I don’t like to attend this or that function because alcohol is a part of the party, she invariably says, “My dear, it is a function; you should attend it because we are invited. That is the right thing to do. If we don’t like what others do, we must ignore it; the remedy is not to avoid society itself. We are humans, and humans are social beings; hence, you can’t continue to be a recluse.”</p>
<p>My father was a strict teetotaller, and I too have always followed his path and still follow it. Besides, I am a great admirer of Gandhi and dislike smoking and drinking. My first encounter with drunkards was when I was a pre-degree student. </p><p>When I discovered every one of my best friends was very fond of Toddy, I disapproved, fought with them, and demanded they stop drinking. None of them was ready to heed my advice and quit drinking, so I unfriended them all. My best friend was the one who vehemently argued in favour of liquor consumption and repeatedly asked me what was wrong with toddy/liquor consumption. </p>.<p>“It is intoxicating, and it is bad to have intoxicating drinks and drugs,” I said, as I always did. </p>.<p>“I like intoxication, and how can you say intoxication is bad?” he asked <br>nonchalantly. </p>.<p>For me, such arguments are ridiculous, but my best friend told me that <br>it was my argument that was ridiculous. I snapped all connections with him, and it was the beginning of my reclusive path.</p>.<p>I used to attend all social gatherings in our neighbourhood until liquor started making an appearance on almost all such occasions—housewarmings, weddings, anniversaries, deaths and death anniversaries, etc. And I started withdrawing from all social gatherings until I was a complete recluse. I retreated into the world of books. Writers such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelly, Arnold, Browning, and Tennyson opened a new world too beautiful to shun.</p>.<p>Then came along Hamlet. Of all the plays of Shakespeare, Hamlet is the one I read again and again, and his dialogue, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” reminded me of my friend, who questioned me about how I could argue intoxication is bad. Hamlet shattered the walls of my reclusiveness. I realised that if I didn’t like the ways of the others, shunning them altogether was not the best way to prove my point. </p>.<p class="bodytext">When Hamlet shattered the walls within me, my wife, who is socially gifted, shattered them from the outside too. She loves many of my qualities; being a teetotaller is one of them. When I tell her that I don’t like to attend this or that function because alcohol is a part of the party, she invariably says, “My dear, it is a function; you should attend it because we are invited. That is the right thing to do. If we don’t like what others do, we must ignore it; the remedy is not to avoid society itself. We are humans, and humans are social beings; hence, you can’t continue to be a recluse.”</p>
