They Drink, We Despair

Why do Muslims drinking, in public here, continue to
irritate me ?. Gunah woh kar rahey haiN, meno kee ?.
AqaibuT unn kee kharab ho rahi hai, sano kee ?. I am
not their mamoo. MaiN nay koi Theka nahi liya hoa. So
why does it continue to bug me ?. Ya-ha-ai ?.

I was reading this kaki’s ilog today and she goes on
about how she does hijab and her family was from punjab,
and so on. I thought "Hey, I can relate to her life,
her trials and tribulations. She’s one of us".

Until I got to the parts of her drinking. She’s a lush-
bag by her own admission. It felt like someone had taken
a sledge-hammer and slammed it into my chest. Do you
know what the feeling was ?. Raw betrayel.

I felt betrayed by her. As soon as she mentioned this,
I realized she had became a complete stranger to me.
The little associations that I had woven to that point,
lay unfurled. And it was all because of her choice to drink.

Akhir kiyouN ?. Why does drinking of muslims irk me so ?.
It is, afterall just a sin (albeit a major one). The
answer came back two-fold:

#1 Drinking, unlike other sins, affects your lifestyle choices
like few others. A drinker lands into a town and the first
thing he is looking for, is a good pub/bar to unwind. On
weekends, he is looking to amuse himself around booze. If
you take them out to a ballgame, Tou wahaN bhee beer lay
ker bhaet jaieNgay. Get off work, head for the bar. Paper
acha hoa hai, head to the bar. Birthday party, head to the
bar. ChaleeswaN, head to the bar. Aqeeqa, head to the bar.
Depressed, head to the bar. Happy, head to the...

Drinkers are uncomfortable around non-drinkers. They tend
to socialize largely among fellow drinkers. They feel more
comfortable drinking there. HaTTa kai their life is governed
by booze, in one form or another.

How can you, a teatoteller, relate to him/her ?. Even if
you try, how far will you get with him/her ?.

#2 Secondly, a muslim drinking openly brings the more pabanD
muslims into disrepute. Gora will think kai "abay yea Tou
aesay hee tashun maarTa hai kai muslims aren’t supposed to
drink. Yea Dekho iss kee behen DhuTT paRa hai, apni puke
maiN yahaN". Kis kis ka mouN bunD karraiN-gay aap ?. If I
am living in that same society, Tou iss sey Tou meri direct
Tazleel O’ Tazheek ho rahi hai. That’s how I feel.

There can be a third, ’anil munkar’ wali baaT, laiken that
often doesn’t get off the ground, till the disappointment
subsides.

Later on, I found out kay the kaki is not really a muslim
and then YAKDUM, sari Takleef fana-fillah ho gai!. "So she’s
not a muslim. Oh, then she can do anything. Bar maiN bheeT
kar, keg kou darukt mouN laga kar, ghuTa ghuT pea jai phir".
Maybe there’s a little bad blood in me. "Acha hai, phir
drunk ho kar ulti-seeDhi harkaTieN karrey, baqiyouN kee
Tarah". The muslims can line up and watch the show.

Kaki is cool otherwise. I guess it’s just a primitive
instinct: I feel protective of mah tribe.