DUM MARO DUM….

SANGEETA WADDHWANI ASKS THE ‘UNASKABLE’ QUESTION…GIVEN OUR LORD SHIVA WAS ASSOCIATED WITH ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS..IS NARCOTIC CONSUMPTION MEANT TO BE A PART OF OUR COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE? IS BOLLYWOOD’S AFFINITY WITH THE NARCOTICS TRADE INEVITABLE…?

Ladies and Gentlemen…

It’s finally out there..over 150 big ticket Bolly names are embroiled in the drug ‘racket’ which Arnab Goswami tells us is not just illegal but is funding a business originating in Pakistan. Or China.

Years ago I was at an Inner Engineering programme conducted by Sadhguru. The two day programme ended in a question and answer session and I was fortunate to get a microphone in hand (in an audience of thousands it is a privilege!)

I asked Sadhguru, “Ours is perhaps the only faith and mythicscape which has a deity like Lord Shiva, who is associated with narcotics and states of intoxication. How do we explain this? And being a writer who has frequented the private worlds and parties of the hyper elite, I have seen the same affection for chasing chemical highs… So what really makes this drug taking habit so endemic to human existence?”

Sadhguru seemed to have ‘got’ my personality and exposure down pat. His voice took on a worldly, cosmopolitan feel, his accent took on a global nuance, as he said, “Lord Shiva was a Maha Yogi, an alchemist, he did not need narcotics to arrive at an altered state of consciousness. His meditation gave him the mastery to visit other states. But, his followers, the gunas, were not as evolved, and they needed drugs to induce those states.”

Much to my fascination, Sadhguru took on the next part of my question in earnest as well. He revealed, “You know the connect between marijuana and the human brain goes back thousands of years, research has proved this. A scientist took millions of dollars from the US government after the Vietnam War (when soldiers used cannabis to ease the psychological pain of warfare), to study the history of humanity and our connection to hallucinogens. He was astounded to find that the human brain has a specific receptor for marijuana. Do you know we even store some of the chemicals from marijuana in our fat cells?”

While Republic TV has gone on a moral rampage about our drug-taking stars, it may make sense to step back a bit and look at the blatant references to drug laced living that exists from ancient archetypes to contemporary gods and goddesses. Read:Stars.

Many tycoons and fashion designers , wolves on Wall Street and of course film personalities are sniffing coke on the fleek. To them it’s a privilege that comes with status. Why single out female actresses when this illegal habit is prevalent in so many industries? Yes the channel insists that the racket helps fund attacks against our own army…believing the source to be from across our borders. That is a theory that needs to be proved.

I dont think the film industry has really shied away from its shady and murky ties with any phenomena..it had underworld funding before banks stepped in to fund films legally. It had been widely frowned upon by ‘good families’ as a hotbed of casting couches and lust-filled casting coups…so much so Karishma Kapoor fought against the Kapoor rule that their daughters and wives would NEVER act…a rule formulated to ‘protect’ the family’s women and their reputation. As for drugs! Jai Jai Shiva Shankar was a massive and unapologetic projection of a ‘bhanged’ out hero and heroine, as was Zeenat Aman’s psychedelic styling as she smoked hashish, and trilled a sexy Dum Maro Dum…

And who can forget Lisa Haydon…swaying somnabulistic ishstyle to Manali Trance? So if a video went viral showing a party at Karan Johar’s house, showing every other famous face glassy eyed and lost to the real world…why are we so surprised if the stars WhatsApp chats have them asking, “Maal He Kya?”

Maal se taal mila…get up to step yaar…Bollywood had trips sure… but we are forcing them to have guilt trips now. Lo Karlo Baat!

They never claimed to be clean, they even laid bare Sanjay Dutt’s drug-interfaced life for all to experience in 75mm…and they feel as children of a creative god, they have earned their other-worldly fixes. They are mediums of escapism…often looking to escape the vistas of their own hyper- realities.

Do we have it in us to see that it’s TV that is suddenly spinning the tale into desperate new TRP grabbing twists? Certainly the stars are not role models. They don’t want to be either. Years ago I had Shah Rukh Khan telling me, “I smoke, I drink, I hardly sleep, am hooked on black coffee….am hardly a role model.” (They actually called him Charlie in one movie…go figure that nonmenclature out!)

If we want to bust the drug cartel, let’s bust it across the rarefied echelons of society as well – not just accost one industry that anyways gets more than its share of hype and hyperbole. Bole toh?