Opium

The next day we bought Opium. Quite difficult considering that we don't know what it looks like, or tastes like. We were led into a small room along the narrow cobbled and muddy streets, wiping off the cow dung before entering and directed to sit on the mattress that coverered almost the entire floor. Life went on outside - they didn't close the door - as per normal. One of the dealers shouted out once to somebody to pass him some Indian quality Opium. The Chinese quality was brought from the only other piece of furniture in the room -a cupboard standing in a dark corner of the room.

Lots of talk. The Chinese quality was black and very sticky and very bitter. The Indian quality was black, and very sweet - almost crunchy. That's how much sugar was cut into it. Figures varied continoulsy how many grams you need per portion. Sometimes it was one gram, then two then five, as we sized each other up in how much knowledge we had in Opium. Once it was established that we were clueless, the prices were set at about sixty pennies (English) per gram for the Indian, and three pounds (English) for the Chinese. We settled on one gram of the Chinese to try it out. Ten grams minimum purchase, or up to ten kilograms. I see. After much haggling we bought ten grams of the Indian for a third of the initial quote.

I slipped it into my underpants - because I am streetwise. When Sarita bought some chewing gum from a stall, the little package fell out onto the road. The hole in my underpants must have grown a little in size.

In the evening we ordered some chai in a thermos, and took it upstairs and tried out our little purchase. Not much happened, so we eventually fell asleep. But I do remember waking up occassionally and feeling a little toasted. In the morning we both had a hangover.

I will try again in Rajasthan.