“DRIVEN TO DRINK” – by Desmond Kelly ‘the Star of eLanka’

With everything that is happening around the World at the moment, most of what we hear about today, is nothing but bad news. As we grow older, the natural progression of everything around us is expected. However, The Australia that most of us, Burghers from Ceylon migrated to, was so very different, in so many ways, it is nearly impossible to imagine that, in barely half a century, education of the young,general living conditions, employment, medical benefits, nursing homes, palliative care, right down to undertakers’ yes, everything has changed & changed drastically, I must add.

     This writer lived one hectic lifetime of 26 years in Ceylon, came to Melbourne (in the middle of a “White-Australia-Policy) only because I was a “sickly-white” colour after “having to leave” because of a “Sinhala-only” Policy, which meant that my skin had to be slightly darker & because my children would have had to do everything in Sinhala or face a jobless future.

So we decided to come to Australia, where English was the spoken language, went out to buy myself a second-hand car, & was informed that I should try “LINES MOTORS” in Dandenong, only to find out, after much searching that it was “LANES MOTORS”. So now, after escaping the Sinhala-only predicament, I had to learn how to speak “Orstralian”, not English. My dear dad, coming out of his front door to go to work one morning was greeted by his Aussie neighbour who asked him “how are you going? “, my dad replied “hello, I am going by bus to the Dandenong Station and then taking the train to Melbourne”. The neighbour was slightly perplexed. Not only that. He did not know what the hell Carlo Kelly was talking about.

     I have, to this moment, lived another hectic TWO lives in Australia,(55 years),  put up with a lot of terribly bad news but, being the optimist I have always been, will endeavour to inform all my “Burgher-Buddies” in Oz., (most of whom have a habit of “bending their elbows”, too much), the very good news of how to stop doing this forthwith, not only that, but at once.!

Exactly one year before I was born, on the 2nd of July, 1935, “Alcoholics Anonymous” was founded. A New York Stockbroker, simply named Bill W (all A.A. members only use initials for their surnames), an alcoholic, who had stopped drinking because of a “spiritual experience”, aided a Physician named Dr.Bob
to stop drinking. During a business trip to Acron, O., Bill W. met Dr.Bob., & shared with him, his own experiences as a hopeless alcoholic ( & I know quite a few myself ), & his method of recovering from this disease. Suffering ftom a severe hangover, a still woozy, Dr.Bob had his last drink in the eventide of the 10th of June, 1935 . The next day, with Bill W., Dr.Bob founded what is known as “Alcoholics Anonymous.

Neither Bill W., who lived until 1971 nor Dr.Bob., who lived until 1950, ever touched a drink again. The Fellowship they founded, based on the concept of alcoholics helping each other, now has close to two million members. Please remember my friends,   “Don’t drink & drive, if you want to stay alive & don’t think I make a fuss, join “A.A. if you wish to SURVIVE”.

                                                                    Desmond Kelly
                                                                    Star of eLanka.