The screw up is that most people have a low tolerance of alcohol and they happily ignore this . I don ' t think that ' s true . The general perception of Indians is that they drink like fish . I can vouch for this from personal experience . We are definitely at par , if not ahead , in our drinking capacity . The problem is , as with most things in life , practice makes you better . Europe begins practice at 1415 , America at 1617 . They get ample time to make peace with alcohol . They tend to overdo it in college or high school archivesepisode 3961 partyschool that talks about alcohol in American universities , but most of them will come out of it after finding a sweet spot of balance . Which is good . In India , this practice phase begins somewhere around 1920 for affluent urban folks who are a very tiny minority . Even then , many do not begin before 2324 , till they get their first job to uphold high morals set by Hitler parents . This is too late to begin , firstly . And then , it has to be repressed from thereon . Hide it from society , hide it from neighbors , hide it from parents . Making a taboo doesn ' t help in being cool about it . All this while , you never had a chance to understand your body ' s limits and nuances . Which is why you ' ll continue to misuse alcohol , even when your overall consumption is tiny . So many people in my city drink and drive , which is just plain stupid . These folks never had a chance to understand responsible drinking and really assimilate drinking into their lives in a healthy fashion . Edit Fixed wording