Kudos to Adelmo Fernandes for the letter titled “More bars than milk booths”(August 9). Instead of trying to act “liberal” or “modern”, Fernandes has preferred to act responsible and rightly pointed out the ill-effects of alcohol.
There lies no doubt to the fact that alcohol is the greatest vice of the society. The sponsors and promoters of alcohol like night clubs, pubs and discotheques are nothing but breeding ground of crimes and indecency of all hues. And why not? After all each and every ingredients of crimes and hell are omnipresent in nightlife! As if philistinism of lewd Bollywood lyrics and obscene dance with suggestive gestures, skimpily-clad girls, relative desolateness of night are not enough; its combination with alcohol prove deadly. This is the very reason why reckless bike races, molestations, eve-teasing, rapes, fights, drunken driving, accidents have tarnished the nights of Kolkata and other “progressive” cities.
Yes, almost each and every possible crime (right from that horrific rape and murder in the moving New Delhi bus to Park Street rape in Kolkata) gets committed by the intoxicated brigade as the monstrous influence of the deadly liquid simply robs the sanity of the consumer who in turn fails to recognize between good and bad deed. Also the deadly affects of alcohol bring out the beast in man. Moreover innumerable families go absolute bankrupt due to the reckless drinking habit of its earning members. And less said about the fatal effect of alcohol on health the better. When even India’s most laggard state in each and every state i.e Bihar has discovered the dangerous effects of alcohol on individuals and the society as a whole; an “enlightened” and “educated” section feel no qualms in penning articles in support of it which is indeed extremely tragic.
It is hoped that the administration of all states will also ban sale and consumption of alcohol within its geographical boundary by resisting the immense pressure from the alcohol lobby and the vested interests. With the ban of alcohol, perhaps that den of barbarities named nightclubs and discotheques will also down its shutters.
