Siddhartha was refereed to my office by the special drug control group
of the police department who had found him wandering by the river two days
before. My clinic had been empanelled under the government as counseling
and de-addiction center and the authorities thought that I could be of help
in solving this young man's problems
Siddhartha was in his late twenties. He said that he was twenty six
years of age. He had been from a well to do family and belonged to parents
who belonged to a well known ethnic group in the United States. When he was
brought to my office, he was lean and looked quite haggard. Although he was
picked up by the drug control squad, I soon found out that he was not an
addict although he had been taking drugs since the last few days. I
considered him to be lucky because we had a chance to treat him before he
would be lost to the influence of drugs.
When he came into my office the person was quite silent and had a
dejected look about him. He was quite cooperative with the police and did
not resist when they asked him to come along with them. A quick look at his
credentials proved that the was indeed a good student and had an acceptable
track record behind him except that he had been sighted at the local clubs
and joints using drugs, and the previous night was involved in a scuffle
with the guys in a local club. He had a dejected air about him and would
not answer the questions of the police with more than the required 'yes' or
'no'. Otherwise he talked as laconically as possible and never ventured to
It was only after he spent a day at the rehabilitation center attached
to my office did he venture to speak something about himself. He was born
and brought up with a lot of emphasis on the ethnic culture that his
parents had held close to their hearts and he was always made to believe
that he belonged to a different culture than
...