IndiaPost.com - Caution on use of wine & whiskey among Diaspora

The general affluence of the Diaspora as a whole and intense desire of its members to meet their own kinds of people, yet their inability to interact with them on weekdays, ends up pushing all such celebratory activities and dinners to the weekends.

The arrangements for such parties for the weddings or birthdays of their children or for a housewarming indeed turn out to be relatively more elaborate than those of the indigenous people.

In view of relative small numbers of Diaspora members in any one given town or city, it is not unusual to find same individuals attending many of these functions again and again regardless of the hosts. Consequently, many among us start knowing one another rather on a closer basis.

Alcohol is omnipresent and almost always served in the form of whiskey, wine and beer at various celebrations. This is irrespective of who arranges the function or what the event happens to be or in which part of the world it is taking place.

The people in general, regardless of background, carry this notion that the meaning and the purpose of partying is indeed drinking. Yet the similarity ends there. While most of the individuals from Indian subcontinent, on occasions of celebrations, usually drink in moderation but some who indulge in drinking more than what would be considered normal, carry a definite weakness for scotch or whisky rather than wine or beer.

Of all the scotches or whiskies, characteristically Chivas Regal or Johnny Walker, relatively higher end whiskies, seem to be more popular choices among them, at least as far as I have seen. I am all too familiar with some of such celebrations of our people where the host ended up paying much more for the drinks than the elaborate food itself.

At the same time, unlike the drinking habits of the indigenous population, they just wouldn't limit their amount to one or two drinks before or with dinner, instead they will keep on, drink after a drink. Use of some forms of alcoholic beverages in ancient Indian culture is well known from time immemorial. However, Scotch, whisky, beer and rum are relatively late entries within the Indian scene.

They appeared with the arrival of the Western people. Like evening tea, this daily ingestion of "Having a stiff glass of whiskey at the end of the day by the Indians may perhaps be a simple residual legacy of British Raj" (Amelia Gentleman in International Harold Tribune, March 15, 2007). If not entirely, this fact seems to be true to some extent.

Most of the Indian languages and vernaculars therefore, don't have enough of their own specific words in vocabulary when it comes to separating out wine from whisky and vice-versa. By default, all kinds of alcoholic beverages, i.e. wine, whisky, scotch, rum, beer and local homemade 'tharaah' ultimately end up under the common label of 'sharaab or mudra or mai' that in fact, translates into wine in the minds of most of the Indians.

Bollywood further stereotyped use of 'the red bottle' implying excessive use of sharaab as the most common form of pathological drinking in many Indian movies. Lately the use of red wine within the Western world, both indigenous and immigrants seems to be on the rise for the health reasons.

Those under the age of 65 who are in the habit of drinking and are cautious enough to weigh the benefits against the risks may continue to consume one or two drinks a day as use of whiskey in moderation appears to be beneficial to some extent. For people above this age, the number of the drinks should be limited to one drink a day.

This amount is equal to 12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80 proof distilled spirits. Not many medical experts will advise non-drinkers to initiate drinking. In fact American Heart Foundation (AHF) has put forth this clear statement

"The AHF does not recommend that one should start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease because drinking alcohol can be addictive.

Drinking too much can increase the risk of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, liver damage, obesity and certain types of cancer, accidents and other problems. Even a small amount of alcohol can cause cardio-myopathy or weakened heart muscle and finally leading to heart failure."

Therefore an extreme degree of caution is advised for those who wish to justify use of alcoholic beverages for prevention of illnesses especially the heart disease.