The Cold Drink Binge

In the mid- eighties one  of my Uncles decided to get married and taking into account our summer vacations, the wedding was fixed in the energy sapping month of June.

We were really excited to go, notwithstanding the ferocious heat waiting for us as northern India experiences extreme weather, wherein there are phases of extreme heat in summers and extreme cold in winters.

We travelled as scheduled. I was impatiently looking forward to meeting my cousins with whom I was planning to have a ball of a time. I was so engrossed in my thinking, that the 24 hour train journey hardly had any impact on me. On reaching our destination I appeared absolutely fresh, just that I was desperately looking for a bottle of chilled cold drink.

Honestly admitting, I was a cold drink guzzler in my younger days, and didn’t let go any opportunity to have one. My cousin too was fond of it and one day we decided to go and have a feast with cold drinks. Took some cash from our parents and went on a cold drink, drinking spree. We decided to have a contest, and the one who drank the most bottles would be the winner. This was nothing but sheer innocence coupled with foolhardiness.

We kept on consuming one bottle after another,  with great help from the weather, occasionally checking out our pockets too. Eventually the bout was over, with me winning the contest 11-7. What a victory it was, unheard in the past. A victorious me and my slightly disappointed cousin returned home which was swarming with guests for the wedding the next day.

My elation on winning the contest  was short-lived though. 11 bottles of aerated drink had begun to take effect inside my gastric chamber. With each passing minute, the pain began to rise, and so were my groans, with my tummy tightening up to it seams. Thankfully there was a doctor in the family who came  to my rescue and just a tablet from him, sorted out the issue. The pain had eased.

Though we got a bit of  a verbal pasting from our parents on indulging in such a contest, I was still thrilled for what I had achieved. Over the years, I have almost forgotten the pain and the subsequent reprimand, but the achievement still lingers on fresh in my memory. Sometimes you have to endure pain to achieve something overwhelming, something substantial, and it so happens that eventually the pain is forgotten, but the success remains alive. Enduring pain for success is part of the process which should never be compromised. Of course, one should beware of drinking 11 bottles of cold drink, which surely was not a good idea in my case and therefore such a contest was never repeated.

However, I was asked a question. Why did I drink 3 bottles more, when I could have easily won 8-7. My innocent reply was,  “ anything for the love of cold drinks “.