Recently I came across a girl who had just passed out from IIT. She got her placement in one of the IT giants in Bangalore. Her family is settled in another city so she has to survive here on her own. To look for a house which should be close to her office, cooking, cleaning and all chores which you expect in a home. Apparently, she can always outsource these as per her comfort level and requirements.

Looking for a house either small or big is a big challenge in Bangalore. In case, if you are settling with one another room sharing girl is a more difficult task. And it becomes much more difficult when you look at teetotaller category.

When you have grown in an environment where alcohol and smoking zones were totally different world and now you have been looked upon by others as if you are from different planet. I understand how it might feel when you stay with those girls who thinks and follows that drinking is a social status and if you are not trapped in it than you are an outdated person. It really irks me when these non-drinker girls tell their stories as how their room partners had misbehaved when they were heavily drunken, puking inside the house every corner and totally unconscious. I was perplexed when someone told me that her room partner took out a dagger after she was completely down with an overdose of alcohol.

Aww! That poor girl, what to do, she has to bear all these non-sense till she finds a separate house for her. But this challenge of staying with drinkers is not leaving her. Every nook and corner wherever she had tried for PG or separate room, she found that she is the isolated one being a teetotaller. In fact, someone had advised her to accept this and adjust with these categories of drinkers on daily basis. I was really surprised by the suggestion!

Is it really a social status if you love spending your weekend in pubs and bars? In case, someone is not interested then why these types of people should be considered as aliens or they should face PUB-shaming.

What’s wrong with these families or teens or youngsters who had never seen someone in their family drinking alcohol or smoking? Does it means they are saadhu sanyasi types or had never enjoyed their life or can never be in future just because their families are not falling prey to so-called high profile pubs and bars?

I don’t think so; I feel at any age if you are depressed or extremely happy , drinking is not at all a parameter to judge or to celebrate. For the longer run or even shorter, these things can never do any good or uplift your mood. It’s an addiction which makes you weaker internally and dependent. The early we know the better it is!

If you are confident that you are on the right path being a teetotaller than why you think for others that how they will react if you tell them that you don’t drink and smoke. Why to feel the peer pressure and guilt?

In fact, you should be proud to say that yes, I don’t drink and smoke and neither in my whole family. I am amongst those happiest people who no need to awe for those things which makes their conscious to lose.

One should feel proud and confident in telling that we have certain rules for our healthy and happy life and we will follow it proudly with not even an inch to compromise.

I strongly believe that parents should make their children feel that they should be confident and proud enough in sharing that they don’t drink!

Stick to your lifestyle and don’t change it just because of peer pressure or as a social status.

Drinking at school or college level is increasing day by day. So we really need to be extra careful with our children and they should understand that we as a parent trust them and knows that they will share all odds and even of their life with us. We need to boost their confidence and make them feel emotionally strong at regular intervals.

I really feel pity when I hear that even most of the times Parents know that their children smoke or drink too much that sometimes they land up in emergencies but as per their logic they don’t want to interfere in their life. Does it really make sense?

When you know your child in on wrong track, still you won’t interfere? Then who will suffer at the end?

Sometimes its really scary and I really feel blessed that at least we had grown in same environment where these things were completely barred. And I proudly brag this always.

I don’t believe that happiness or stress-free life really stays in these Pubs and bars. Happiness is inside and one need to introspect it and feel. There are much more positive ways of de-stressing you. Why not yoga, why not spirituality, why not meditation and why these things are considered as only for old age people. Why a positive lifestyle is like a stigma on certain people and society thinks as they are so conditioned and orthodox.

But the reality is something different which they can never imagine. In fact, a life becomes easier and happy with these positive life hacks.

Why a Boss should think that the one who drinks with him is always a better guy than who don’t accompany him with a glass of wine?

Why a school or college going teens think they are socially better off than those who don’t drink?

Why young working classes need to bear the brunt of alcohol and smoking? I think this thinking has to go off and TEETOTALLERS should stay with their pride and happiness in whatever way they are!