I am not saying the degrees you’ve earned are just pieces of paper, they are your most precious property; however chori this “real” world is your actual university that will teach many things that books never did. The thing about truth is it’s always true. The encounter with truth started with my neighbors; physically only a road separates us nevertheless things taught in educational institution proved to not stand the current of realism here. “Alcohol is always bad, a gateway to the sins that plagued the nicest humans.” I read it again and again until it was engraved in my brain and no circumstance or situation made alcoholism better. There was a time when the village resonated with her cries, a story which repeated itself every night as her husband was violent towards her in front of her children though the next day there would be a docile family man. Night comes, few too many drinks later he would be the brutal man again. When anyone suggested means of stopping the violence, she flatly refused; “He earns, works so hard he has tension sometimes so he drinks; what’s wrong in that?” she counters questions. There are laws and means putting an end to the violence but in Nepal, laws are loosely enforced. Perhaps the misery of several households is rooted in the social acceptance and use of alcohol as not something to be ashamed of. Now with the increasing age, work has become sparse and the flow of money is just a trickle; alcohol has at last been seen as a problem. The wife, her adult children serve to the man the violence that has been served to them all these past years. They now want him to stop drinking as now the family honor is lost at last! All was good in the family so long as they got desired goods, yearly vacations and money to spend; concerned voices were then prying eyes but once the flow of money was obstructed alcoholism became bad. Now instead of taking his beatings willingly while pouring out his drinks she now retaliates, any help legal or otherwise is welcome. The sufferer has become the tormentor. Circumstances should not be the guiding forces for a well known wrong practice to be overlooked. Conversely the truth of the books and years of schooling are all tainted every time I hear them argue loudly -- the only thing is the loudest cry then was a female one and now it’s a male one.