New Year; New Beginning 2009!!!

Happy New Year fellas! Unlike last year, I won’t take 12 days to make a post this time. But like last year, I am again clueless about exactly what this post should be? Like last year there are again so many things to talk; the New Year resolutions or the celebrations. Everyone was upset about the celebrations this time [read the disc, restaurant and pub etc owners]; due to slowdown the business was a little sluggish. But there is no point in talking about the two, as I had already rejected them last year. Still if you are interested then you can refer to my last year’s New Year post http://www.zhagdoo.com/2008/01/12/new-year-new-beginning/. So what this post is about? I haven’t actually figured it out yet.

One common thing in all the tabloids, magazines, journals etc talking about New Year celebrations was the 1st January hangover and how there is nothing wrong in it, as when you are partying hard the hangovers is understandable. They suggested various ways of getting out of it, fresh lime soda being the time tested formula. I don’t know how much the hangover thing is good or bad as I never had one, because I don’t drink.

In a family where no one drinks [and when I say no one, I actually mean no one. Except one or two cousins and that too occasionally] it is very hard to break the legacy, especially at early age. It is not that you can’t, but when no one around you is doing [even in my friend circle none is an avid drinker. Barring one or two and that too on some occasion all are teetotalers] then you don’t feel like doing it. The road for the abstainers is not an easy one! Being one I know how much difficulty you face. So let us talk about it only in this New Year post.

First of all there is lot of peer pressure [perfect excuse to get into such things]; which actually makes you feel odd sometimes, when you get that ‘oh so outdated’ kind of look especially from girls. Moreover many times you feel left out from conversation when fellow students are bragging about their capacity to hold the liquor. Or during the discussion about the various drinks, or when they are glamorizing the outing they had after the high [one friend told me how she and two of her friends had blast after they consumed vodka, in quantities sufficient to hit them].

Also being an abstainer means you have to miss the various parties which your fellow students have. Well for those who don’t know, these so called parties are nothing but heavy drinking sessions. All the indulgents living nearby assemble at a place and drink, nothing else but drink and chat. I got a mail once talking about common lines after people gets drunk; some of them are:

·         Tu to Mera bhai hai…bhai!!! [You are my brother]

·         Kuchh bhi hai par saala Bhai hai Apna… [whatever it is, but you are my brother]

·         You know I am not drunk…

·         Gaadi mein Chalaunga… [I’ll drive]

·         Abe bol daal aaj usko, aar yaa paar…. [tell her today]

·         Chal teri baat karata hoon usse, phone number de uska… [I’ll talk to her for you, give me her number]

·         Yaar aaj uski bahut yaad aa rahi hai [dude, am missing her]

·         Chal bhai tu kah raha hai to tere liye chodh diya usko… aaj se wo teri…bana issi baat par ek – ek aur peg!!! [if you are saying I’ll leave her. From now on she is all yours. On this account one more peg]

·         Saala… aaj se dare band…….. …….!!! [from now on, no boozing]

Fortunately I’ve not got a chance to attend such parties so am not sure how much of it is true, if you have any idea then do share the experience.

It is also awkward to tell people that I don’t drink everytime someone offer you one at some JAAM session [not the ‘just a minute’ JAM session but the Hindi/Urdu JAAM session i.e. cocktail]. I haven’t attended many cocktails and the few which I have no one ever offered me [may be because of my age], but I have seen my dad and other abstainers again and again rejecting the offer. Imagine the situation everytime one drunk soul offers you, you say no I don’t drink and they snap back with ‘arrey nahi aise kaise, thodi si toh’; ‘humare sath ek baar’; ‘acha yeh lo isme kuch nahi hai’ and many more like these. As soon as you get rid of one, the other is standing right there with all the same dialogues. 

Sometimes at these cocktails what to drink is an issue. Generally there are soft drinks also at these JAAM sessions, but sometimes they don’t. I still remember the first cocktail I ever went to. My 10th class board exams had just finished and my mom had to attend some function at French embassy [invitation never mentioned anything about cocktail]. So I went alongwith her, thinking about trying some exotic French food, but all I found there was booze. Both of us had nothing much to do [and drink] and since everyone was drinking even finding plain water was a task. But fresh lemonade was easily available [I guess to handle the hangover thing]. It was then and there that I developed a liking for the fresh lemonade.

And finally if you do not drink then you don’t get the 1st January hangover; this means you were not partying hard last night, according to all the tabloids, magazines, journals etc. Still if you feel something ain’t right about boozing then congratulations on starting the New Year on the right note.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *