There was a time I literally worshiped beer. I never even believed that beer has a devastating impact on human life. But this lackadaisical thinking of mine came to a halt on May 28, 2011 when I experienced torture, courtesy of beer. I even decided to quit drinking altogether.

During my drinking career I had tasted almost every brand of beer. In fact, after I had sat for the Malawi School Certificate of Education in 2005 I resorted to heavy drinking, a development that infuriated my guardians.

In 2007 I enrolled for college studies in Blantyre and I never wavered in my drinking. I recall the time I got sloshed at a drinking place called Mai Kanteliya around Limbe Market to the extent that I lost a pair of shoes and a cell phone. I felt comfortable guzzling endlessly, impregnating myself with false hopes that I was a responsible person even though I was operating from my brother's house in Njamba location.

After college I got employed and went to live in my own house in Soche. Now that I had steady income in form of earning a salary every month my drinking became worse. What more with the total freedom I had attained!

But my girlfriend and relatives were extremely worried with my dangerous lifestyle. I ignored their worries and advice. However, one day I picked sense from their talk and it was on May 27, 2011.

I started the day on a cool note after having a good time with one of the country's top notch artists at Limbe PTC. We smashed five bottles of Carlsberg Special Brew each and decided to part, with me going to my house in Soche. I boarded a minibus but I decided to stop by a certain pub called Village Inn to buy one for the road.

But upon entering Village Inn around 7:30pm, I was greeted with an atmosphere of merry-making hanging in the air. Imbibers flooded the dancefloor as popular local hits blared out wave after wave.

I ended up leaving the place around 11: 00pm with two bottles in one hand and a newspaper in the other. But had I known! The moment I reached a certain place where there is a jungle of bamboos, three men armed with pangas emerged from nowhere and politely asked me to surrender to them whatever I had. And knowing that the situation was dangerous, I exactly did what the three thugs had ordered me to do. It was a game of life and death.

Though not a believer then, I silently prayed to God to come to my rescue because it was a dreadful moment. You see, the thugs even demanded that i give them my clothes and I just did that, save for my boxer pant!

So, in total the loot the three men went away with included two mobile phone handsets, two flask disks, MTL airtime worth K3, 000, and cash K17, 000.

Since then, night life and I have become enemies. And I have also happily become enemies with beer.