Teen weeds out an addiction after breaking bad

Addiction to drugs has ruined the lives of thousands of youths, but one city teenager, whose substance abuse nearly ruined his life, is scripting a happy story by turning into a crusader against the menace, to persuade college students in the city to say ‘never’ to drugs.

Gaurav Harish, now in PU II, is reaching out to collegians in Bangalore to turn them against drugs and help them find ways to resist the dangerous trap that drugs lay for teenagers. His interaction with the students of Mount Carmel College on Wednesday moved many to tears and made many pledge that they will resist drugs.

“The response is overwhelming as students relate to me,” says Gaurav, after addressing a packed MCC auditorium for about two hours. At his young age, Gaurav has come a long way in life. It all started with fear of exams compelling him to take to smoking. Peer pressure forced him to become a chain smoker. He and his friends were smoking by the Sankey tank one day, when he had his first encounter with drugs.

“Another group of boys present there persuaded me to smoke a cigarette filled with marijuana.” That was the point when his life changed, for the worse.

He became an addict, and with his life in a freefall, attempted suicide on his 18th birthday. In coma for 20 days and taking two months to recover, Gaurav decided to live - for the weed (Ganja).

“At this phase I thought that I was doing favour to my parents by living. Later, I turned an alcoholic and met with series of accidents that required 12 surgeries for multiple fractures. As many as 6 steel rods are integrated into my skeletal system at various parts,” he says.

At this point, his girlfriend, who had stood by him all through, walked out on Gaurav. Ironically, that proved to be turning point in his life. With support from his family, he successfully came out of the addiction to drugs and alcohol.

“I decided to do something meaningful and I found out that interaction with student community, which is most vulnerable to drugs, is the best thing,” he says. Wednesday’s talk at MCC was one such.

There was a hushed silence in the auditorium as Gaurav narrated his story of disastrous tryst with drugs and how he came out of it. He touched the issues of drugs, sexual exploitation of girls in parties where drugs are freely in use, sexual promiscuity under the excuse of a fashionable life and how a combination of these distracted many students from studies, ruining their career and destroying families.

He effectively drove home the point that it was important to focus on studies and one’s self than trying out boy friends or girl friends and seeking happiness in drugs. A moist-eyed audience rose to accord him a standing applause.