Did You Ever "Hit & Run"

Alcohol and its after effects on road have been highlighted enough to Indians in the past few weeks. I am sure the sensible ones among us would have taken the lesson, at least about drinking and driving.

However, today I want to highlight the other ways in which you could have hit and run under the influence of alcohol without even realizing it. This needs your attention because the “Hit and Run” cases that I am going to list are mostly the ones which are difficult to bring to the notice of the Court of law because their effects are invisible.

Enough of setting the context, let me just come to the point. Think about all of these cases mentioned below as you read through…

• If after drinking you have created a ruckus in front of a child you have hit the child’s innocence really hard. ​And you not admitting to your behavior’s impact on child psychology is in a way running away from the situation.

• If you have physically hit your loved ones under the influence of alcohol and then shrugged it off, you have run away from admitting your act of violence.

The above two acts don’t define your drunken behavior? Wait!  Don’t quit reading this article as yet...You might not classify into the category of villains referred to above but you might not be totally innocent either. See if any of the situations mentioned below apply to you instead:

•  If you have tried to feel up a female friend who tried to hold you up straight when you were drunk, you have hit the dignity of your friend. And you smiling on your achievement later is you running away from admitting that you chose alcohol as an excuse to keep aside your “gentleman” mask for a while.

• If you and your group of friends have ganged up and bullied a colleague you personally dislike, you have used alcohol as an excuse to be nasty. Your behavior might have hit the self-esteem of your colleague really hard but then why would you care? You were drunk after all and your behavior was involuntary, at least in the face of it. Isn't this running away from being humble and empathetic?

• If you have used “I am drunk” as an excuse to pass on sleazy comments to women around and for that matter send text messages to that girl who rules your hormones, you have been a pervert. But will you ever admit to the harassment that you subjected those girls to. You again hit hard on women’s dignity and ran away.

• If you have drunk dialed someone for a heart to heart chat and then next day behaved as if you do not remember anything at all, you have been a coward. Your cowardice has hit the emotions of that someone who might have woven dreams of being with your sober self, based on your drunken confessions of love and like.

• If you have misbehaved with the staff serving you drinks, you have hit the laws of citizenship and run away from your responsibility as a good citizen.

• If you have betrayed your loved one under the influence of alcohol, you have hit the trust in the relationship and passed on the blame to alcohol. You definitely have run away, haven’t you?

Are you guilty of any of the above behaviors? If yes, think it through and remember that "Hit and Run" does not always happen on the road…With this I rest my case.