My dear Aamir,
Thanking you, showing our gratitude to you, flattering you or even singing your praises is doing nothing to express my feelings after seeing an episode on your show, “Satyamev Jayate”. You promised to not only tell the truth but also to portray the reality of the various ailments and diseases that are ravaging this great country and you have not been like all our politicians, you have been keeping your promise with the kind of dedication and determination that forces my right hand to touch my forehead and salute you.
Every episode that has been telecast on your show has been an eye-opener, every episode has shaken up and woken up people of this mahaan country and its people who were living in a country which was being led by all kinds of leaders to a place where it was being threatened with the feeling of being a backward country which was not interested in going forward in spite of all the progress made in practical terms. Yes, we have been making constant progress in every field of life, BUT WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THE QUALITY OF LIFE WE ARE GETTING USED TO LIVING AS INDIANS..???
I have turned into an ardent addict of your show and sit before my TV set long before your show can start. Last Sunday morning, I had just finished writing one more chapter of my book which tells the truth about my days as an alcoholic and it was 11 am and time for your show to start. I stopped writing and to my utter surprise I found out that your episode that morning was all about alcohol, alcoholics and alcoholism in the country. I sat stunned and watched you bringing out all the truths about this disease which is reigning rampant in every corner of the country, in high places and low, among the most intelligent and the most illiterate. The way you made alcoholics speak out the bitter truth about the curse of alcoholism was something I feel could not have been done the way you did it that Sunday. The victims opened their hearts out to you and told you the truth about the beemaari (disease) the way they would never have opened up before the greatest psychiatrist, Pandit or any kind of guide who claimed to be authorities on this sensitive subject that involved the lives of people who are victims and their near and dear ones.
I have absolutely no hesitation in confessing that I too have been a victim who has been saved at the right time, but I still call myself an alcoholic because I know it is one enemy that can strike and damage a man or a woman at anytime. I wished you had known about my being a victim and invited me to be a part of your show. I would not hide my face and reveal the kinds of secrets and truths about alcohol and being an alcoholic.
Would you believe that I started drinking when I was hardly seven years old..? Would you believe that I hated alcohol for the next twenty-seven years..? Would you believe that I used to visit churches, schools and colleges talking to people about the ill effects and the damage that alcohol could cause and not only damage the victim physically, but also ruin his reputation in his own family, in his place of work and in society as a whole..? Would you believe that I who was deadly against alcohol took to drinking soon after I finished all that I had to say about the curse of alcohol to people..? Would you believe that this man (me) who once walked away from a drunken man was a part of almost every bar in Mumbai, drinking from morning till I lost control over all my senses..? Would you believe that I had come under a speeding truck and knew nothing about the ‘miracle’ till I reached the bar again and people looked at me as if I was some ghost who had come back from the dead?
Would you believe that I was thrown out of auto- rickshaws and even out of trains, flung on the floors of moving trains with people walking all over me..? Would you believe that I was cheated, beaten, and even left in places from where I never knew my way home..? Would you believe that I who was a very holy and devout person could abuse in the worst foul language which I could never dream of using when I was sober..? Would you believe that my family threw me out and I lived in the streets for days together and still could not give up drinking..? Would you believe that I used to lose control over all my muscles and nerves and no doctor had any treatment but just two pegs of alcohol in any form or under any brand could make me a man strong enough to run after a bus and catch it, a man who could face any kind of challenge, a man who could even face an inquiry commission set up by my company to know whether I should be sacked or not and how I under the influence of alcohol could fight my own case and come out free and then rush to the nearest bar..? Would you believe that I had been admitted to the Holy Spirit Hospital for a record number of nine times and every time I came out with my bag I headed straight for the bar which served the cheapest liquor..? Would you believe that I could write some of my best articles and stories when I had a couple of pegs inside me and even won awards for some of them..? Would you believe that the best of psychiatrists and specialists had given me up as a “gone case” and even called me a “miracle” for surviving after making all my attempts to burst my liver..? Would you believe that I swore before my wife, my little daughter and my best friends that I would never touch alcohol again and the very next morning I was the first customer in the bar, even before the bar could open..? And would you believe that I could even drink vinegar, Dettol and have even drunk any kind of liquid which looked like liquor..? Would you believe that I lost the greatest love of my life because of my greater love for alcohol..? Would you believe how I hated Mahatma Gandhi on his birthday and his anniversary which were “dry days” and all other dry days..? And would you believe that it took me more than thirty -four years to realize that I was alive even after the disastrous relationship I had with alcohol..? And would you believe that I one day woke up and told myself that I would stop drinking and that is how I am now..? Would you believe that I don’t believe that I have broken up with the bottle and would you believe that if I am ever scared of any scene it is a bar or seeing some human being losing all his senses as he walks out of one of the bars I regularly visited once…? I can go on and on about my “affair” with alcohol.
Your episode shook up the one-time alcoholic in me and as I saw your episode progress I remembered all that I was when I was trapped in the bottles of alcohol and all that I had gone through when I saw all those brave men who told you the truth about being slaves of alcohol. That morning and also that evening your episode made my resolve to resist drinking to the best of my ability and I even sent up a mighty prayer to God for all of us, victims of this disease which is much more dangerous than cancer or any other killer disease, a disease which kills every day, every moment when alcohol flows in the system of man. I know there are people who drink on special occasions, I know there are “social drinkers”, I know there are doctors who even recommend two pegs because they say it is good for health, but I too had started with two pegs to keep the promise I had made to my doctors but those two pegs led me to a point of no return.
I still don’t know how I should thank you, Aamir, for dealing with a delicate and sensitive issue like the one you did that Sunday. I hope and I even feel that there are may be a number of alcoholics who must have said farewell to alcohol that night and I also hope that your episode has reached as many people as possible because it is not just a programme on TV but a one- man mission to do his best for his countrymen to be inspired to live a better life.
Carry on your crusade, Mr. Khan, you are not just a “filmwaala” or just another superstar, there have been “Babas”, “Peers”, Social Activists and Crusaders and the best of Psychiatrists who have tried to solve this drastic problem and have miserably failed, but I am sure that your attempt will work the kind of miracles that those great people cannot even think of.
I hope to see you as a savior of people facing some of the most dangerous problems. You may in your modesty say that you are not a savior but what you are doing is what some of the greatest saviors have claimed to do and have failed. I can only wish you the very best and try to spread all your messages to as many people as possible
Yours very sincerely
ALI PETER JOHN
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