Forty-five-year-old Rakesh (name changed), an alcoholic, died of liver cirrhosis. His friends, family members, relatives and residents of the locality in a corner of Karimnagar town knew this.
They would discuss in private how Rakesh, son of a retired government schoolteacher, got addicted to liquor. “While roaming around with some of his jobless friends, he started consuming liquor. Eventually, he reached a stage where he could not live even a single day without gulping liquor,” his cousin Srikar revealed.
But, neither Srikar nor Rakesh’s family members are ready to admit that he died of liquor addiction. “How can we say this in the open? It would defame our family,” they say.
