My name is Rohini and I am from Kirinda. We recently had our daughter’s ceremony for attaining age. In our village, it is considered a village custom to serve alcohol at functions or ceremonies of any sort. Alcohol was served at almost all the functions and ceremonies that were held previously. During the organizing phase of our function, my husband and son suggested that we should serve alcohol as they were planning on inviting people from their workplaces.

I knew that serving alcohol was a useless idea and at the same time would be a big loss for us economically. I firmly insisted that we should not serve alcohol and that we will cancel the function otherwise. Eventually, I was able to convince my husband and son that serving alcohol was not necessary. The function took place on the initial date as planned and I was able to save around Rs 150,000 in the bank. Despite this saving, I was able to feed the people who attended the function quite well.

Six other functions within the village were held afterwards out of which five were alcohol-free. Now my husband’s friends are saying that they can hold ceremonies and functions without alcohol too!