------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRI Continental Film Festival - Dona Paula, Goa, Sep 28 - Oct 2, 2007
http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricontinental/tricon.htm For public viewing. Registration at The International Centre Goa. (Ph: +91-832-2452805 to 10) Online Media Partner: http://www.GOANET.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070916/asp/7days/story_8322576.asp Young and sloshed More and more women in their early twenties are battling a serious drinking problem, discovers Reena Martins Anjali is celebrating her third month of sobriety over cake and coffee. But at the all-woman Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting in Mumbai — where neither her sex nor her sobriety is an element of novelty — she stands out. It's not her bright red lipstick that attracts attention or her model-like visage. It's not even the countless tattoos etched all over. What hits you is her age — Anjali is only 25. Traditional wisdom has it that alcoholism is a problem that besets people — mostly men — in their forties and fifties. But doctors say now more and more women in their early twenties are battling a serious drinking problem. And thanks to a burgeoning pub culture in the metros, many of them are getting addicted to liquor in their teenage, or even pre-teen years. Beena (all names have been changed to protect identities) was all of 11 when she had her first drink — a glass of wine. "I enjoyed it so much that I drank up my sister's and friend's share, besides my own," Beena, now 26, recalls. By 13, she was moving around in Bangalore with a circle of friends a little older than her. On Sunday afternoons, the friends gathered over pitchers of beer. Soon, she was drinking more and more. Two years ago, she lurched her way into an AA meeting in Bangalore, having struggled for about five years as a full-blown alcoholic. She went there on her own, seeking help. In cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune, exclusively women's groups against alcoholism have sprung up over the last couple of years, in keeping with the growing number of women drinkers, and a woman's need for privacy when it comes to sharing her drinking lows. Delhi has had one such group for a decade. When Celina walked into an AA meeting 10 years ago at the age of 28, "not wanting to live, not ready to die," everyone else was well into their forties. There were no faces as young as hers, she recalls. Today, there are more young women than before, though they are still heavily outnumbered by older people. For years, it was believed that hard drinking and men went together. But a gender, alcohol and culture study conducted by Bangalore's National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) in 2005 found that the drinking pattern of women in Karnataka was "not too different from that of men," says Nimhans psychiatrist Vivek Benegal. Even the average age at which men and women took their first drink is the same — around 20 years. Some women said they began with lighter spirits such as beer and wine, and then graduated to hard liquor. "They began to drink like there was no tomorrow," says Dr Benegal. So why do young women take to heavy drinking? The educated upper middle class urban woman between 20 and 30 that the Nimhans study looked at drank to boost her mood. "Until a few years ago, drinking was more aimed at relieving negative moods and reducing stress," says Dr Benegal. Alcoholism often begins as a simple, confidence building measure. Simran started drinking when she was 15 — beer first, and later neat vodka. "After drinking, I was saying things I couldn't have said otherwise. I was enjoying the attention I was getting. I felt complete," says Simran, now 21 and working at a Pune call centre. By the time she was in her late teens, she had become addicted to hard liquor. Women with a drink problem stress that when they first started drinking, they never thought there would be trouble. "The line between the cup and the lip is too thin to be seen," says Samya, another Bangalore-based alcoholic in recovery, to whom the sight of young women "puking their guts out" after having one too many outside many a Bangalore pub is hardly new. One of the lessons that former alcoholic 26-year-old Bangalorean Supriya learnt from AA is that an alcoholic is defined not in terms of the number of drinks he or she can have but the sum total of its effects. "It's an obsession which you recognise when the body says you cannot drink safely and the mind says you can," she says. This is a story common to most alcoholics. The thrill of not getting ostensibly drunk after downing more drinks than the others acts as a stimulant. "I revelled in the fact that I could drink and drive friends home. I had a huge capacity for alcohol," says Supriya. A couple of years later, she found herself bingeing on anything alcoholic from 6.30 pm, after work, till the wee hours of the morning every day. Sister Valsamma, a counsellor at the Kripa Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre in Pune, is constantly faced with young women alcoholics who think they are social drinkers. "They are not willing to accept the fact that their system cannot tolerate alcohol," she says. The Pune centre, which is only for women, has seen 107 women patients since 2001. But even after going through rehab, quite a few say they still have to battle temptation. Even a couple of years after wrenching herself away from the bottle, Simran says she cannot help but reach for it — in her mind — "in times of celebration and mourning." Supriya adds that she is often tempted when she sees her friends enjoy their drinks. But Supriya knows she has to stay sober. She cannot allow herself the luxury of forgetting her journey into hell — and back. one too many Most young women who become alcoholics start drinking when they are in their early teens Family conflict is common — parents refuse to accept that alcoholism is a disease Women drinkers face greater social ostracism than men. They are regarded as immoral Women alcoholics would like to stop drinking but wrongly believe that they can do it themselves
