@Tien, your responses are helpful. Lying definitely burdens one’s mind, especially when one is conscious that one is breaking precepts.
@Lal
The above link “Right Speech – How to Avoid Accumulating Kamma.” is a good reference for me.
I realized that in most cases I could have just said “its personal” and that should have sufficed. However, my responses are muddled because of the person I was responding to and the situation I was in. In superior case, he was an elderly person and he is asking personal information in front of his sub-ordinates and my peers. It would have been blunt and rude for me to say “its personal”. In alcohol case, again I was in a social situation and one of my peer was asking in front of other colleagues.
In terms of intentions, it appears that I have an internal conflict between two values: respecting others (elders for sure; due to the culture I grew up in) vs saying absolute truth. My responses were muddled (or half-baked) because I was trying to be respectful and say the truth to the possible extent while cutting down further conversations on the subject (to avoid further [white] lies).