Man is mostly curious about things around him. Many inventions are products of curiosity. You may be curious as to the reason behind some happenings. Curiosity may also arise when a problem is in existence calling for an urgent solution.
When I was growing up, I always asked questions about the principle behind some things. Whenever I went as far as engaging in an act to clear my doubt, it mostly led to destruction but in few cases that it led to something positive, I felt great. Either way, I learned lessons and moved on.
I was about 12 years old when I had this experience. There were two friends in my neighborhood then who were unrepentant drunkards. Whenever they became drunk, they entertained people in the community. From their incoherent speeches to imbalance movements, they were fun to watch.
I remember one of them exchanged words with his father in-law one day and when my father had some words with him the following day, he told my father that he was intentional in abusing his father in-law. He said that he only waited to be drunk before doing such in order to have a defense mechanism when he was to be sanctioned for disrespecting his father in-law.
"If the issue comes up at the palace of the village Chief, I'll beg them that it was as a result of being drunk." He told my dad.
I was confused and at the same time curious about the effects of alcohol on people's actions. I initially thought that when someone is drunk, he doesn't know what he is doing but here is a man telling us that he was drunk yet intentional about his encounter with his In-law.
I concluded that every drunkard knows what he is doing while drunk but my friend, Ahmed disagreed. He said that a drunkard does not know what he is doing when he takes alcohol.
"Don't you see Adadavize and Adavi matching on the main road while others both old and young watch them? They can't be doing such disgraceful acts intentionally." Ahmed insisted.
I opted for the option of clearing my doubt about the effect of alcohol on humans.
"Do drunkards lose their senses when drunk or do they intentionally behave unusually?" I asked myself this question and I was prepared to answer the question.
"I will buy a bottle of dry gin and take it to see the effect." I told Ahmed.
"You don't need to do that. It may harm you or make you behave unusually." He responded.
I insisted that I would go ahead with my plan and I did. I bought a bottle of gin and took it. I drank it in a shop about some meters away from my house. I was so confident that I wouldn't break down.
After a few minutes, I started to see every single thing around me in pairs. The surroundings were turning in an unusual manner. Then unusual silence from me followed.
Ahmed greeted me and asked if I was still gallant. Perhaps he knew that I was being knocked out gradually.
After some minutes, he said we should return home. We stood up and we started trekking home. The journey wasn't easy. The ground in front of me as we were moving was filled with imaginary potholes. I was throwing my legs incoherently to avoid the potholes.
"See what your curiosity is causing you. I told you not to embark on this." Ahmed stated.
At this stage, I didn't want to be disturbed with any talks. I looked around and found a stone on which I suddenly sat. I was too weak to continue the trekking.
Ahmed encouraged me to try a little more to arrive home and sleep. I stood up and tried harder. After about four stopovers within the space of about 300 meters, we arrived home.
I immediately went to bed. The time was around 5 pm. I slept off and spent 16 hours sleeping. I woke up at 9 am the following morning. For as long as I started keeping memories, I never slept for that number of hours.
Ahmed met me after waking up and he asked me about my current opinion about the effects of alcohol on people's actions.
"I agree with you totally. I went the difficult way to solve the puzzle arising from my curiosity." I responded.
It was that experience that proved to me that alcohol makes humans behave unusually. However, I promised myself never to use myself as a tool of research next time.