Alcohol

This is a pen sketch inspired by "Bacchus and Ariadne" painted by Titian (1485-1576) in 1520-23. This shows wine God Bacchus and his followers coming across Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete, who was abandoned by her lover Theseus.

It was done in a diary page without any intention to be preserved.... but one of my very good friend suggested that i should exibit it. I did. Got addicted to exibitions. I saw how my emotions get converted to images and speek to peoples i have never known or met. A bond is formed before even ' Hello '.

I didn't used to drink back then but now i do, once in a while. In joy or sorrow.... I have to be thankful to wine God for many reasons. He has made me call long lost friends late at night and made me say hello, sorry or i love you. He has made me speak to new people by mistake , that has grown into a beautiful frienship. I realised that how much inhibited we remain in sense that we supress our wishes untill its for Bacchus to let us free. Probably this is the reason why it is the oldest and most used poison worldwide. It also has its contribution to Medical science, as without it half of the diseases in the world would not have been there.

It is even my thesis topic " Etiology of Hepatic Cirrhosis in Upper Assam - a hospital based study". So my job is to find and study people with cirrhosis of liver and find their cause, most of them i presume would be Alcholic. How did they come to this stage...? There was a time when they used to think that drinking was bad..... there was a time when they took theri first sip and found out that alcohol has a strangely odd taste....there was a time when they used to say that i have full control on my drinking..... and then before knowing they end in the casualty at 2 a.m. with massive blood vomiting. They either die of blood loss or shame...... they die eventually every day till their death.

when i was an intern i remember a man who had come with cirrhos. he was a bengali and was married to a lady who was Arunachali.... ( i am also bengali and my first love in Medical college was also an Arunachali girl ). after few days of hospital stay and investigations his wife suddenly vanished. She probably ran away because of financial constrains, she probably left him because he used to beat her up, beat their children, spend all the money on alcohol.... she may have left him to punish him of his own deeds.... or probably she loved her so much that she could not see him die in front of her eyes... But at the end of the day SHE LEFT HIM TO DIE. Every day he hoped that she will come back.... she didn't. he had no money and no place to go. he gave me two phone numbers, one of his wife and another of his home. I called them.... His family had left him because he had married a tribal girl and his wife left him as he was a alcoholic. No one came, the wont even take my calls. I was his only witness in the last 7 days. He knew that no one will come to see him and no one will even come to take his corpse. But every day he wold look out at the door and tell me that some one will come from his home to buy the medicines. He had one son and one daughter , i never dared to ask there names. He died of infections in his deep ulcers due to inflamation of veins. I have never seen any one die of that cause since. He could have been treated........ One fine day he stoped breathing and i had to write the cadever note. The cause of death was given as cardiopulmonary failure. But i wanted to write ALCOHOL. His body remained outside the ward for 28 hours before police took the body to the morgue or where ( I DON'T KNOW ). He died of infection, alcohol, guilt, shame, repent, love, betrayal, hope. Or he had died years before when he left his home to mary a girl and regreting every single day after that. Did Bacchus kill him or saved him from the death he used to die every day ?

He haunts me till today.......

I still drink with my friend and enjoy it proudy naming them ' Happy Hours ' .............