I have a long letter from an anguished father that ends with the words — “Please help me save my son.” Here is my reply to his son.
Friend, you are going for a total clampdown. Try not to take it hard. Here are the facts.
You are 16 years old. You have discovered you love alcohol and you manage to put away several beers or Breezers in social get-togethers at least once a week. You can’t deny this.
I have heard your arguments — beer or Breezers have very little alcohol, they are just fun drinks, everyone has them these days and how come your friends’ parents don’t seem to object. I have heard other arguments — how older people don’t understand that the world has changed, how we need to be progressive and liberal in our views, how even 15-year-old girls are swigging straight from the bottle, how it’s so very “cool” to be seen sipping a beer while you dance with a chick on the floor, nursing a gentle high.
I can’t blame you for feeling that way. I know that our marketing gurus have designed sexy surrogate advertisements that have flooded billboards and homes with the singular message — alcohol is cool, is normal and is fun. The world seems to be partying and you don’t want to be left out. But then, your grades are slipping, you have stopped studying and you face a board exam at the end of the year.
I don’t care if your friends’ parents are not saying anything about their kids hitting the bottle. I wonder who those parents are and what their vision for their child is. Your father suspects they are all rich people in government, politics or business. They have deep pockets and can buy a seat in a medical or engineering college or even send their kid abroad while your dad manages to smile in his fixed salaried income. On Judgement Day, when you end up with a low second class or worse, and you don’t get a seat in any respectable college, your so-called friends are going to desert you. In fact, they will scorn you, you will become the butt end of all the jokes as the “loser” who couldn’t make it. The beers and Breezers are not going to provide much solace at that time.
It’s a hard world out there, my friend. Your academic performance is your only saviour. You need all your wits around you to be able to write your exams well. Alcohol is crazily addictive — you start craving it when you can’t have it, it bombs you out your mind when you do have it, and makes you lazy and sluggish for days afterwards. You might think one beer is nothing, but that’s how it always begins. Ask any alcoholic in a rehab centre — it always starts as “just one drink”. You are dangerously close to the brink — one more step and you will fall and never recover. Nobody can take chances with you anymore — therefore the clampdown.
I am going to read out the decision your parents have reached. It might sound harsh, like a prison sentence, but it’s the only thing that will save you from the brink of disaster. I am sure in time you will figure that out.
No more friends, outings, parties or night-outs. You will close your Facebook account ASAP. Only one hour of TV on any given day. Till you write your last board exam, it’s going to be just studies, home and family. That’s not just your father’s verdict — it’s any sane parent’s decision. You will just obey.
Nobody is giving you any choice in the matter anymore.