Desiree Fernandes
It’s the holiday season and a reason for celebration. But amidst all the fanfare, humanity across the globe has sufficient reasons to lament and groan each day. From being caught up in a whirlwind of schedules to fulfilling social commitments and the like.
To break free from the work mania and the humdrum lifestyle that can at varying intervals suck the life out of you, people seek escapism in order to indulge in some ecstatic gratification of body, mind and soul. Some do it through pristine outdoor explorations, some through exotic international travels while others seek refuge in substance abuse. Our state of Goa is no stranger when it comes to hogging the limelight for rave parties, EDMs and the peddling of drugs. While our tiny hamlet is worthy of being a paradise on earth, it has turned into a den of drugs devouring whomsoever wish to indulge in cheap thrills.
While the political honchos have resolved to initiate stern action against such demeaning activities, it leaves much to be desired. The question that begs an addressal is, ‘Why drugs to disperse dilemma?’
People fear public criticism and put on a facade to cope with depression. In spite of having the worldwide web at the click of a button it seems fairly inaccessible and unreachable in crisis. Instead it has estranged human relations. The pressures of professional commitments and perils of loneliness can instantly stab one in the gut. Synthetic drugs do the quick fix and instantly alter the human anatomy thereby causing a chemical imbalance in the equations that streamline our bodily responses. Living in the modern era where anything can be purchased and consumed instantly without having to undergo the rigorous strains likewise these extrinsic facets have inhibited our intrinsic responses. We have numbed our senses and enslaved our children to drugs. Imposing a ban on drugs is next to impossible as the addict will resolve to devise other strategies. What the victims need in the present is rehabilitation and support. Addiction is like a monster; it lives inside and feeds off the victim, taking from them, controlling and destroying. It is akin to a beast that tears a person apart, rips out the soul and laughs at the weaknesses. It is like a shadow that lurks behind in wait in order to strike. Addiction basically lives in everyone’s mind by sitting, staring and waiting….we being mere spectators are passive partakers with the onslaught of the ultra lifestyle. “How we treat the vulnerable is how we define ourselves as a society,” says comedian Russell Brand, a drug addict survivor.
The ethereal universe does not seem to permit sufficient recluse to humanity and as such the cessation is to succumb to a surreal world where narcotics offers interim relief. Each one for themselves and God for all, seems to have become the adage for the day. Living in close proximity in the area that claimed the lives of two youth to drugs leaves me in a quandary. How many more survivors will die a slow death? Sniffing out perpetrators of the drug menace will hasten at a snail’s pace. Notorious night clubs, booze and obnoxious substances have befriended persons who have given up the will to find meaning in this congested cosmopolitan. With a steady increment in substance abuse it is fitting to acknowledge that the authentic virtues ingrained within society has lost its charm and seems to revile in the antiquities of the hippie culture.
