Sirimavo is a fun girl; she was 17 when I went to Sir Lanka to tutor her. Her parents had asked for a tutor to come and tutor her not because she was behind in her studies, but because she had a problem with alcohol abuse. Tutors from England had recently sent a tutor to help the daughter of a friend of her parents who had the same problem. 

I spent two months with Sirimavo; there was very little tutoring – she was not behind in her studies, but I spent all day every day with her – I enjoyed it all, as she was so much fun. We played a lot of tennis, swam a lot and generally played very hard together; she never had a spare moment. I never mentioned alcohol. 

She had clearly got in the with the ‘wrong crowd’ at school; admittedly they studied hard, but they played very hard too and this involved a lot of alcohol and Sirimavo thought that that was a very cool thing to do. 

The two months with me showed her that there was another side to life, a fun side with no need for alcohol; I filled her days brimful with activities, all of which she enjoyed (she even enjoyed the little studying that we did together!). She was exhausted by the end of each day and all she wanted to do was to go to sleep. She continued to see her friends but she became the one in the group who didn't drink and they didn't ostracize her because she was so much fun and confident.

Sirimavo and I kept in touch and she told me that she had a much better time not drinking and that she never touched alcohol again.