Contrary to myth that teenyboppers own the rave scene in the city, it is powered by affluent middle-aged executives.
Typical ravers in Mumbai are affluent, and in their 30s and 40s.
Glowsticks, stuffed toys and candy bracelets have acquired a fast-growing, overaged fan-following in Mumbai. Contrary to myth that teenyboppers own the rave scene in the city, it is powered by affluent middle-aged executives. And this tribe loves the kid paraphernalia which is now part of global ecstasy legend.
Even the Sunday morning raids on a rave party in Gorai confirms what ravers and deejays have been telling us: the ravers here are an older, prosperous lot. More than three-fourth of the people busted were in their 30s and 40s and affluent, according to Dilip Srirao, deputy commissioner of police, anti-narcotics cell.
People who have attended raves say it is because one needs to be loaded to attend such parties. It is beyond most teenyboppers' means to pay for travel to a far-flung farmhouse in Karjat or Lonavla which is often accessible only by car and pay anything between Rs450 and Rs700 for an acid (LSD) drop or ecstasy pill.
Moreover, the circuit works only through word-of-mouth and a network of closely familiar people. Over-excited youngsters are deliberately kept out.
Insiders say it is also a myth that rampant orgies happen at raves. "Sometimes things do get sexual, but only on the fringes. A lot of people get their spouses along, and are in it for the music and the high. I am one of the few single guys there," says an investment banker, whose industrialist friend invites him over every time he hosts a rave.
"The one my husband and I went to was a few kilometres off Lonavlaa forest clearing adjoining a shack with just one room and a loo," says 33-year-old Sunaina Sheth (name changed). The couple are in media jobs. "People were mostly those on whom money has begun to settle. Many of them were successful ad-world types who have crossed 30, even 40."
A deejay, who specialises in trance (music which has widely come to be associated with the party drug ecstasy), says the authorities have still not come to terms with drugs like acid or ecstasy because they leave no trail like a smelly mouth. Even the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 2006, on the US Department of State website says, "Newspapers frequently refer to ecstasy and cocaine use on the Mumbai and New Delhi 'party circuit', but there is no information on the extent of use. There has been considerable reporting in the newspapers indicating that use of cocaine and ecstasy are on the rise.”
Also, since the party drugs are far beyond most policemen's means, it goes into unfamiliar territory. "A couple of friends were on an acid trip. They had parked their Santro right in the middle of a beach in Malad and started dancing to loud music," the deejay says. "When the cops came, they didn't get any evidence. But they knew something was fishy when they found 30 bottles of water in the booty."
One of the major giveaways of an ecstasy trip is people gulping gallons of water because rushes of chemical happiness also bring quick dehydration. "Whenever I see people driving down with cars loaded with mineral water bottles, I can't help suspect they are on their way to a rave," says Sheth.
City ravers say a party usually gets busted if the authorities have not been paid off well or if a rival rave gang tips off the cops about a party.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}