Being Alcoholic
By Dr Asif Javed
Williamsport, PA
Many years ago, a friend asked me to bring whisky for him during my annual visits to Pakistan. I obliged. A few years later, his wife told me, in confidence, to stop that practice. When asked why, she reported that he had been falling around after drinking and that she had had enough of that embarrassment in front of their daughter-in-law. Naturally I stopped. There is more to the episode but we will return to it later.
Drinking alcohol and being alcoholic is not synonymous. Alcoholism refers to uncontrolled drinking and preoccupation with alcohol. For unclear reasons, there have been a disproportionate number of writers and poets who have succumbed to alcoholism. Possibly no other self-inflicted ailment has destroyed so many careers in literature.
One of the most famous, and tragic, was of Manto, one of the greatest short story writers of Urdu. In his last days, he had become an embarrassment to himself. He started asking for money from anybody who would oblige. Once as he was seen approaching Pak Tea House, two of his friends rushed to the toilet to avoid him. On another occasion, he was manhandled by a salesman of Edelji, a wine shop in Lahore. Apparently, Manto had failed to pay for alcohol that he had been buying on credit. This shocking incident was witnessed by many of Manto’s friends who did come to his rescue.
And then there was Israr-ul-HaqMajaz, a precocious and talented poet. Back in the 30’s, one of his verses, later immortalized by Talat Mahmood in Thokar, had touched the hearts of youth all over India:
Ae gham-e-dilkyakaroon
Ae whasht-e-dilkyakaroon
Majaz, whose nephew Javed Akhtar is a popular poet and writer in India, unfortunately became alcoholic. A concerned friend once made a suggestion to him: Majaz should time himself with a gharee (watch) while drinking alcohol, like Josh Malihabadi did. Majaz, a man of acerbic wit, responded that he would rather have a gharaa(water pitcher) than a gharee in front of him. The alcohol consumption continued. He died in his 30’s. Josh, who rarely acknowledged a better poet, once admitted that at the time of death, Majaz had achieved only 25% of his poetic potential. Imagine the loss to Urdu poetry!
When it comes to alcoholism, the undisputed champion was Akhtar Shirani. Many will find it hard to believe but Akhtar Shirani was more popular in the 30’s and 40’s than any other poet in India including Iqbal, Josh and the rest. The prince of romantic poetry used to galvanize the youth by his heartwrenching renditions. Who can forget his verse:
Hey zulmmagarfaryadnakar
Ae ishkhamenbarbadnakar
Son of a highly respected scholar, Akhtar died at 43, estranged from his family, a destitute who had descended in to opium addiction too.
Agha Hashar was a huge name in India. He was multitalented: a successful playwright, and a decent poet. Having made his name all over India, he returned to Lahore in his last years. He had many plans: more plays to be staged, movies to be produced. But those who saw him were alarmed at the decline in his health. The Indian Shakespeare had been indiscreet with alcohol too and it had taken its toll. He looked like a dead man walking and did not last long. Ashiq Batalwi, a friend of his, notes that Hashar once reprimanded Akhtar Shirani for a verse that was mediocre by Shirani’s standard. Hasher then improved upon it there and then. Such was the talent that was consumed by alcohol.
There is hardly a bigger name in Urdu Journalism than Charag Hasan Hasrat. Those who had the privilege of working with Hasrat rate him very highly. He was a decent poet too. Just look at this verse of his:
Ghairon se kaha tum nein, ghairon se suna tum nein
Khuchham sekahahota, kuch ham se sunahota
Like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Hasrat too joined the British Indian Army during the Second World War. There was a decent salary, plenty of free time, and access to inexpensive alcohol; he became an alcoholic and died at 50.
Abdul Hamid Adam, a popular poet, who used to work in military accounts, was one of the few who overcame his alcoholism. Before he accomplished that, however, he had many funny stories about this; the funniest is when, while drunk, he jumped from the second floor of a hotel in Anarkali, and sustained a severe facial injury. When discovered, he refused first aid, and instead, asked for more alcohol!
Josh Malihabadi’s alcohol use has become a legend; a more disciplined user of alcohol is hard to imagine: he drank four pegs, and always began precisely at sunset. He was never seen drunk but “suffered like a dog with intractable itch” (his own words from a letter to ZA Bhutto) when 1977’s prohibition affected his alcohol supply. His influential friends helped restore the alcohol supply and the revolutionary poet’s itch presumably went away. In a verse of his, he described his alcoholism as I begin to rise when thesun sets in.
Another casualty of alcoholism was KL Saigol, the greatest male singer of his generation. In his last days, he needed alcohol to steady himself, not the other way around. It is a tribute to Naushad that Shah Jahan’s immortal songs were recorded. Saigol was 42 at the time of death.
While alcoholism is more common in writers and poets, other professions are not immune from it. George Best, consistently rated among the top ten footballers of the 20th Century, wrecked his career by alcoholism. Having received a liver transplant, he relapsed and died at 55. Unlike Pele and Maradona, he is remembered more for alcoholism than for his football skills. Pal Gascoigne may have been the best football player of his generation in England. He never achieved his full potential and has been in and out of alcohol rehab.
Politicians in Pakistan try to conceal their alcohol use. ZA Bhutto was often accused of using alcohol. Fed up with the accusation, he once blurted out in a public meeting, “I do drink a little but do not suck the blood of the poor”. That was more than enough to exonerate Quaid-i-Awam with his die hard followers. Ata Turk, the founder of modern Turkey, died at 53 of alcoholic liver Cirrhosis.
In late 60’s, Senator Edward Kennedy was involved in a single car accident, late at night. He escaped unhurt but the other passenger in his car, a young woman, died. Kennedy, who was the driver, failed to report the accident for hours. There was a suspicion that a drunk Kennedy had deliberately delayed reporting to police. He managed to evade the legal trouble but political damage had been done. Many felt that Edward Kennedy would have walked in to the White House, based on his political talent, and the enormous sympathy that existed in USA for his family at the time. But the lingering questions about the accident followed him everywhere. He did make a late run for the White House in 1980, but failed to get his own party’s nomination. He spent the rest of his life ruing his decision to drink and drive.
The list of alcohol users includes two Maulanas as well: one was KausarNiazi, a minister in ZA Bhutto’s cabinet. Bearded Niazi had started his political career in Jamat-e-Islami. Insiders used to ridicule him as Maulana whiskey. Ironically, he was the one to recommend banning alcohol as a political ploy to ZA Bhutto to deflate PNA’s 1977’s political agitation. The other name few would have guessed: AbulKalam Azad. Late Indian writer, Khushwant Singh had accompanied Azad to a conference in Paris. Khushwant reports that as he made an unannounced entry to Azad’s hotel room, Imam-ul-Hind was enjoying his Scotch, all by himself.
The menace of alcoholism is not new. One only has to look at the Mughal dynasty to get an idea: All three of Akbar the Great’s sons were alcoholics: Murad’s alcoholism was so bad that “his friends had to spoon-feed him two cups of arak every morning before he was able to do anything, because he was shaking so badly”. Danyal, a gentle character and of many talents, was nevertheless, a hopeless drunkard,and died at 31. Mohammad Hakim, Akbar’s half-brother, who governed Kabul, also drank himself to death at 31. As for Jahangir (his son Parvez had managed to drink himself to death), he was “a complete physical wreck, plagued by the devastating effects of forty years of alcohol and opium addiction…” notes Dirk Collier in The Great Mughals.
Need one say more about the devastation caused by alcohol? Back to my friend in Pakistan: to my dismay, I later discovered that he had resumed procuring local liquor using his non-Muslim house sweeper’s alcohol permit.
(The writer is a physician in Williamsport, PA and may be reached at asifjaved@comcast.net)
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