15) Hope in Hell

It started innocently as it usually does.

Sapna tasted her first whisky on her 22nd birthday at FMS campus. The party was boisterous as it usually does in the Punjab heartland.

Once the poison got into her system, she found herself in its web. Initially, she found it difficult to buy her drink from the roadside shops and made her male classmates run errands. It was not much later before her throat acquired a hoarse edge as she drank to pass out.

She graduated and went to work in Mumbai. By now a confirmed alcoholic, her new colleagues too started to whisper. Despite the best efforts of her boyfriend Rohit, who was in the HR department, Sapna’s drunken stupor and unsteady feet was gaining too much of unflattering attention.

Rohit would drive her to her lodgings in Andheri before proceeding to his home in Chembur lest she get into trouble. Frankly she was in no position to handle herself after these binges. During the day, it did not go unnoticed at work to see to her hands tremble and voice quiver.

The management, to be fair, counseled as to how her antics were impacting the image of the company. Sapna saw justice in their strictures but she was too weak to resist hitting the bottle: a driver coming late was reason enough; so was getting caught in a traffic jam or even an elevator taking an inordinate time to pick her up!!!

Her colleagues soon ran out of sympathy after a disastrous presentation to the board of directors. Stuttering, quivering, dazed as she spelled out the latest communication strategy. Her director lost his patience,” Shape up or ship out. You have 3 months to get sober and we shall decide upon that”.

Rohit cajoled Sapna to Lilavati Hospital though she fought shy. Sapna kept insisting that she was fine but for just one bad day!!!! For one who was so analytical in her affairs, this was a drunkard’s rationale.

At the clinic the doctors ran a battery of tests before they ventured an opinion. Dr.Namitha suggested that Sapna’s addiction was genetic and most definitely curable.
The doctor was emphatic and prescribed like a mantra,” Please see it as a disease and don’t suffer both self-guilt and shame”.
For Rohit, the doctor counseled,” Please summon her parents and don’t shield her from the consequences of her actions. They must understand Sapna’s state and poor girl must have an emotionally anchor”. In addition, she was recommended Alcoholic Anonymous meetings.

From that day, Sapna was a changed person. She put in the same discipline as when doing her MBA in a struggle against the natural urges of the mind. Her parents were briefed and coached on their roles even as Sapna enrolled for guitar lessons. In addition, she was put on a diet of morning jogs and yoga.

It has been a year since the initial crisis and now she is on the road to recovery. She has remained sober in the last 4 months and reported back to work. Her new found interest in yoga and guitar has done her a world of good.

Recollecting her days in hell, she reminiscences,” But for Rohit, I was a goner”.

He smiles,” It was her fight that did the trick. Infact, I love her more for after her yoga for the face has an extra glow”.