40 Days...

It was one day before Ash Wednesday (February 17th, 2010), the beginning of Lent that I decided to follow it. Which technically means that if you are following Lent you give up something that you love, you make a sacrifice. After not much thought I decided that I would give up one of the most favourite things that I love: and that is "Eating Non-veg food" and not only that I also decided to give up alcohol. Cause like other Christians giving up something or the other and the most common of the sacrifices would be to give up alcohol, eating non-veg food, givng up chocolates, etc. etc. Some people even give up sex, well now that is something which I wouldnt want to add to my list of sacrifices. Can give a shot though!!!

But then I decided to give up both alcohol & non-veg food. At the time of making this decision I didnt think of how difficult it would be or whether I would be able to follow it or not cause somewhere it was an impulsive decision. Not many thoughts ran through my head, cause all I knew was that I have decided to abstain myself from alcohol & non-veg food for the next 40 days... Phewwwwww!!!

I had announced this to many of my friends, family, colleagues and the only response I got was that I wouldnt be able to go through this. Everybody knows me as a hardcore foodie and giving that up would definitely be a herculean task. Im too weak to make such a big sacrifice. But then it actually didnt matter whether I got through this test successfully or not, cause my conscience would not let me cheat myself. I didnt have any particular reason to do this, I didnt do this for the sake of religion, or for God or any other reasons. I just wanted to do it, just wanted to test my will power and how strong I am as an individual to go through this.

As I began counting the days remaining for Easter, my craving for meat just kept on exploding inside my head and even more my stomach. Infact during the forty days, I ended up going to places with my friends, colleagues where they would indulge in alcohol, meat and I would have to sip on some juice for the rest of the evening/night. Had to attend few birthday parties and I would just have to strengthen myself and keep myself away from temptation. Its not that I wasnt tempted to break my sacrifice umpteen times, I just had to distract myself from the obvious.

Easter was on 4th of April, 2010, the day I would break my so called fast, and I couldnt help my self counting the last few remaining days. Cause somewhere deep inside I was happy that I will go through this without a problem. Forty days without non-veg & alcohol was something which I have never done in my entire life. I just kept counting, updating my Facebook, Gtalk status and reminding my self of the days that remained for Easter.

In the end when it was finally Easter, It dawned upon me that I got through this abstinence without a glitch. My system would have gotten cleansed with all the vegetarian (Arghhhhhhh!!!) food which I was consuming(No offense to Vegetarians), but then I didnt bother about that so much, cause I was internally happy that I went through this. Exactly at 12.30Am on Easter Sunday, I had my first drink of Old Monk Rum, after Forty freaking days, and it just felt great, being back to my normal self. And ya just 30ml of Rum got me high, which was kind of expected.

At the end of this abstinence stint of mine, I decided that I will not put myself through this ever again, cause it was painful not to do the things which I love. But Im happy I did it cause it has made me stronger & confident and I know that life will throw tougher challenges at you, its upto you whether you are game for it or not?