Hollywood Superstar Julia Roberts’ helicopter, landing near Hari Mandir Ashram, Pataudi, has kicked off quite the Haryanvi dust storm. She’s playing Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love, a bestselling memoir where Gilberts eats in Italy, prays in India and loves in Bali. The controversies are: Does Roberts really have a gun toting battalion guarding her? Why did the ashram shoo away devotees during Navratri? And imperatively: Will this film misrepresent our great nation in any way?

Film crew have been quoted saying “media access is being denied because the film’s scheduled for release in 2011 and it’s too early to let out what’s in it”. Let out what’s in it? They’re filming an autobiographical bestseller for God’s sake (whatever He has to say about this). Not only do millions of readers know what’s in it, those who’ve seen Gilbert’s interviews know what’s after it too.  A more plausible reason is that they’re filming these serene spiritual sequences, and they don’t want journalists turning it into a reality show. “I’m obviously not a journalist (or not obviously a journalist),” is what I tell the three (apparently unarmed) guards at the ashram gate. They don’t look like ex- NSG or SPG forces (as was the scoop). More like ex- akhada pehelwaans (mud-pit wrestlers). Maybe the commandoes are camouflaged. Still, I can’t carry a camera. Shoot!

Swami Dharam Dev, Ashram President, is no stranger to celebrity. He ran for the Lok Sabha in 2004, and continues to mix with politicians and media-men, and now film stars. “We didn’t deny devotees, or the press, entry,” he argues. “We simply said that they should inform us from beforehand, so a tour can be organized systematically. And no cameras allowed. I asked the crew to shoot during Navratri because that’s when ashram students have holidays.” The Swami quotes classic Sanskrit diktat ‘Vasudev Kutumbakam’ (meaning ‘the world’s a family’) and tells me we should trust Westerners to spread what is Indian. He also cites Max Muller as a glowing example of how responsibly a foreigner can document native culture. His final argument for allowing the film crew in is: “No ‘ashram’ can refuse anyone ‘ashray’, or shelter”. He says many had advised him to ask for more than the Rs 4 lakh donation received, but he didn’t. Mid-conversation, he looks beyond me to murmur, “Juliaji…”

I miss her at first, because she has a slight, if tall, frame (or maybe that’s what days of sanyas does to you). She’s wearing a pale salwaar kameez and is almost merging into people she’s with. Until, a little girl runs up to her, and she grins. More Big Miss Sunshine than Monalisa Smile. You realize in a Pataudi ashram what makes Pretty Woman work worldwide. ‘Vasudev Kutumbakam’ it is…

“She loves talking to children,” the Swami’s grinning too. “Not grown-ups though.” Sure. I wasn’t going to run up to her. Then the Swami tells me how he gave Robert’s kids their Hindu names. The eldest son was named Ganesh – because that’s who every Hindu prayer begins with, and his twin sister Lakshmi – because Diwali’s coming up. And her youngest son Krishna, because, “like Bal Krishna, he was being naughty and not letting me tie the mauli (sacred thread) on his hand.” Sweet. Maybe if husband Daniel Moder came in and threw a fit, he’d name him Mahadev.

I go off alone around the ashram and film set. It’s impossible to tell them apart. What seems like a part of the ashram’s first floor, for instance, is a set made entirely of plywood – and you won’t know it till you knock on the walls. I bump into the Swami here, and he shows me a room that’s supposed to be Gilbert’s. Peering into this room is positively haunting. There’s a bed, a bed-side table, shelves, clothes strewn around and lots of dusty books. So, I’m in a real ashram, with a real Swami, peeping into the room of a real Gilbert – that’s actually unreal. It confounds the Swami too. He’s refused to act in the film, but keeps catching Swamis dressed like him to ask them if they’re for real or reel.

I walk out, past actor Richard Jenkins (whose character is called Richard too, the only real name Gilbert’s used in the Indian section – the others are pseudonyms) and the room where Roberts (Yes! The real Roberts!) is resting before her shoot, to a magnificent meditation hall that is definitely a set. It’s ornately carved, out of wood. I ask an ashram helper if the floor is a part of the set too. He replies in the affirmative and thumps his feet on ply to prove what he’s saying, adding: “This was actually a parking lot.” To my left is a library with portraits of Hindu Gurus on the walls, with the shelves and books in disarray because it’s been shot in. Ahead is a pleasant little garden – also made for the movie. I walk back, past the ashram office where Roberts has just shot a scene. A crew member is telling director Ryan Murphy about the “real feel” the office gave. So I guess it isn’t a set. I’m very paranoid by now and I go about the ashram tapping on walls and thumping my feet. Yes. Now I know why they wouldn’t let the press in.

I spot the Swami again and follow him to the temple terrace, where they’re shooting. The crew’s put up a temple façade that’s carved just like the meditation hall. The design is typical of South Indian temple architecture, which stands to reason. The founder of Gilbert’s ashram (located in Ganeshpuri, Thane) was from South India. The Swami sees me and leads me to a verandah: “We use this as prayer hall balcony. But I don’t know what they’re doing.” “They” are two American film crew members who’re watching a monitor to figure out scene picture quality. All they can see on their screen is a dark short haired guy, and a bearded Swami. Unreal.

Meanwhile, I hear gasps because Roberts is striding out in this gorgeous cream and green saree. She seems extremely comfortable in it, like Nalli LA just found a brand ambassador. Some locals exclaim at how Indian she’s become. Others comment on how well she’s handling the Haryana heat (…literally speaking). The ‘Indian Julia’ euphoria has erupted world over, including in its fold Nevada based ‘Hindu statesman’ Rajan Zed. They don’t seem to get that Roberts is an actress, who stays with her role while filming it sometimes. That Eat Pray Love won’t make her any more Indian, than Erin Brockovich or Sleeping WithThe Enemy made her an activist or member of a battered wives club.

Trudging towards the temple entrance, I’m shushed by frantic crew because a shot is on. I see on a monitor an intimate conversation scene between Roberts and Jenkins being filmed live. Just like HBO. Only, if I yell, they’ll have to pause.

The temple that Roberts (playing Gilbert) swept the floors of has the “real feel” that differentiates a place of meditation from a parking lot – without having to knock or thump. Beyond it is an elegant tower erected in honour of the ashram’s founder Swami Amar Dev. Gilbert climbs such a tower in one of the book’s most passionate climactic chapters.

Next to the tower is a Peepal tree that Roberts meditated under this morning for a shoot. When someone said this to the Swami, he looked puzzled. Then he said , “Oh! You mean in the naatak (play)…” That’s what he calls the film. He kept telling me the ashram students enjoyed the Ram Leela more.

This article appeared originally in Mumbai Mirror( http://alturl.com/egvq). It was also carried in Pune Mirror – front page (http://alturl.com/mrkd), Ahmedabad Mirror (http://alturl.com/ckwm), Bangalore Mirror (http://alturl.com/apyb) and the Times Of India entertainment section (http://alturl.com/6wgc) online…

What does a coffee table book containing 30 years of a photographer’s work represent? If Rafeeq Ellias’ career as award-winning documentary filmmaker and famous photographer provokes amazed befuddlement, then this showcase brings into focus his statement. “I would professionally restrict my skills to photography and filmmaking only.” Personally his interest zooms further into categories chosen for an upcoming exhibition on November 5 (Musuem Gallery, Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum): Travel and Portraiture. “There are overlaps between these ‘categories’,” Ellias clarifies. “Portraiture can happen while traveling or in a studio. They form a common oeuvre.” Yet traveling by itself remains an addiction, being the best way to “eliminate prejudices and bridge divides”. He also talks about how this addiction was intertwined with his photographing the ballet and opera, over a decade: “My fashion photographs prompted a dance festival company to invite me to shoot a ballet in Uzbekistan. On seeing the results, I was invited again, and again, to Eastern Europe, Russia, Hungary…”
Vying for pride of place beside the ballerinas is the depiction of communities by the maker of The Legend Of Fat Mama (on the Chinese community in Kolkata). “We have singular and multiple identities,” Ellias explains. “While the Jews in Brooklyn merge their Hungarian origin with being New Yorkers and the Punjabis in Southall with being Londoners, the Chinese in Calcutta love Luchis as much as Bengalis do.” Even more identities arise on his images with age: “I remember working with two distinct generations in England – a Punjabi grandmother who was occupied by old Hindi films on Zee, and her completely modern, nearly British granddaughter.”
The pages turn over, as does the conversation, to fashion: “This has limitations, being advertising photography. You have to work with a commercial brief.” And yet, in his portrayal of saree draped models besides rural folk wearing complementary colours, or a black model standing in sharp focus before a dissolving landscape, he adds elements to his frame as deftly as he would have captured them while photographing that suit clad Palestinian smoking a hookah, or the portrait of a poet in Gulzar. “That’s because I’m lucky to work with clients who allow me to experiment because of long standing relationship,” he answers, humbly.

This article originally appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/743x

RISHI MAJUMDAR

Photographer: Deepak Turbhekar

Shashank Mani, a management consultant, took a journey called the Azad Bharat Rail Yatra on the 50th year of Indian Independence with a train full of Indian youth bursting out of their coaches to define their country. The detour led him beyond Bharat’s latitudes to write India — A Journey Through A Healing Civilization.
Ten years later, the quest continues. The Tata Jagriti Yatra 2008, will celebrate the 60th year of our Independence by taking 400 youngsters, in the 18-25 age group, to 13 cities in 18 days from December 24, 2008 to January 10, 2009. Only, this yatra will focus on social entrepreneurship by introducing Generation Next to R K Pachauri, Bunker Roy and Kiran Bedi. Mani, now chairman, Jagriti Sewa Sansthan, tells us more…

Why does the selection procedure involve only essays instead of meetings?
The candidates are allowed to submit essays in languages they’re comfortable with, which are translated for us.
As for meetings, some candidates are as far out as the North-East and don’t have either the means or time to come to Mumbai. And we don’t have the manpower to visit them.
We hope to develop an alumni base spread out across the country to be able to meet candidates in their hometowns.

Urban middle class youth find it difficult to connect to small town, rural or belowthe-poverty-line urban India. Social enterprise must come from those it affects.
Our target is those earning Rs 40 to 120 a day. They are not destitute, but not middle class in the sense you and I are. They have a lot of josh and want to benefit from the nine per cent GDP growth.
We want to encourage them to start their enterprises instead of looking for jobs. We also want them to have a sense of purpose – a passion that only money can’t bring. We want 70 per cent of yatris to belong to this group — though anyone’s welcome to apply. But I suspect attaining such a participation percentage will take more awareness … and about five more yatras.

The revelatory nationalistic yatras of Gandhi and Guevara were stuff of legend. But they travelled in small groups. Such a large group will become insulated, with people interacting with each other instead of locals they visit…
That’s why we are choosing people proportionately from different states to create an Indian microcosm on the train. We’ll make sure that no two people from the same state share a compartment. This will create an undercurrent of tension — especially where language barriers exist — but we want that. So besides interactions with locals, interactions with companions will create a ‘revelatory nationalistic yatra’.
To add to this spirit, we will have group debates on issues at hand at various destinations with respective locals involved.

You’re starting your trip from Mumbai. How does the city fit in?
Mumbai consists of a variety of people with one common denomination — enterprise. How it copes with this influx of people is still a wonder. Many on the trip would be visiting Mumbai for the first time and we’re planning to visit many sites, including Dharavi — to bring out the beauty and, sometimes, the beast that the city can be.
Discussions will centre around migration — how it adds adventure and individuality to entrepreneurship, while being a stark reminder of the deprivation that exists in the villages and small towns that these migrants come from. Discussions will also centre on how many small towns will grow into cities in the next 20 years, and how their growth must be better planned than previously.

This article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/zbte

PRAGYA TIWARI

When Sakharam Binder emerged from Tendulkar’s informed imagination a couple of decades ago, he shocked a society unaware that merely 20-odd years later ‘boldness’ in art and media will be passé. Unlike Gidhade, however, Sakharam did not mean to shock, it meant to speak. What about, is still open to investigation.
Those who did not go on a rampage to ban the play for its ‘anti-social’ and ‘immoral’ outlook, were quick to praise it for its central character who challenged middle-class morality and its central institution – marriage. The rebel hero became mythical in his immortality over the years, as the play was performed countlessly in many different languages.But, he was somewhat simplified and restricted by his familiarity.
Is he really a frank-speaking hero who knows his mind? Does he really care so little about what society thinks? Why then does he justify his stand by saying he simply does openly what others enjoy secretly? Makrand Deshpande, who recently wrote and directed Sakharam Ki Khoj Mein Hawaldar, has been fascinated by our hero too. He feels that Sakharam is a fallen man in the end. His ego reveals that beneath his rebellious bravado there was little but basic instinct. “Everyone would like to lead, but only some can,” Deshpande says.
In killing his latest lover girl, Champa for her ‘infidelity’, does Sakharam fall prey to the morality he critiques? Or simply reveal that the foundation of moral codes runs deep up unto the core of human psychology and instinct?
Or is Champa the real hero of this play? His female alter-ego displays more compassion and strength of conviction. Her rebellion rings truer. She dies for challenging his ‘masculine ego’ – for revealing his frailties to himself. She is a rare Tendulkar heroine as she goes all the way with her rebellion, not coming around in the end after exposing male hypocrisy and domination.
Marriage is also a centre point of religious orthodoxy. Is that the real target here? Sakharam is a Brahmin and Lakshmi, his wife-like partner, a staunch Hindu. They commit a murder most foul, unable to stomach Champa’s freedom of spirit. Lakshmi is almost a right-wing crowd pleaser in her meek modesty, piety to her husband, her prejudice against “musalmans”, her moralising, and her devotion to her idols. But perhaps she is only using her religious beliefs as an excuse to secure her interests.
Tendulkar never judged his characters. He did not justify them, thereby leaving room for interpretation. Directors are still eager to do their own version of Sakharam. Om Katare who is reviving his production, feels it is an excellent creative exercise for an actor and director. Jaimini Pathak, who directed a reading of His Fifth Woman – a prelude to Sakharam Binder, found himself discovering layers to the relationship between characters that he had not previously considered. However, the innumerable ‘versions’ hardly ever attempt a truly fresh interpretation of the play. It is not easy to sum up who Sakharam really is. The only certainty is that he is among a lot of other things, a victim of his own dramatic potential.
Sakharam Binder directed by Om Katare plays at the Nehru Festival today, 7.30 pm.

- WITH INPUTS FROM RISHI MAJUMDAR

This article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/eqbs

Photographer: Mukesh Panchal

So Olive celebrates its fifth birthday. Like any spoilt rich brat with many stepfathers (read: AD Singh, Henry Tham Jr, the singer Sagrika, Martin D’Costa, and Anupam Mayekar’ s baby), this five year old’s popularity cuts across the cross section. Digging into the authentic Italian fare at this otherwise contemporary Mediterranean restaurant were Kabir and Pooja Bedi (obliging cameras with joint interviews), Hiten Tejwani and Gauri Pradhan, Astad Daeboo (playing Spartan tastefully in an arty white kurta), Suchitra Pillai (Mirror Question Of The Week: Which party has Pillai not graced of late?), Tanya (with yet another escort… never say die spirit…like the Aussie cricket team) and the like.

This article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/kk5h

RISHI MAJUMDER (The byline in the article was mis-spelt, as ‘RISHI MAZUMDAR’. Trust me, that’s me!)

Photographer: Deepak Turbhekar

Radiation levels emitted from cell phone towers across Mumbai are alarmingly high and pose serious health hazards to millions of Mumbaikars, an investigation done by this paper in association with a group that measures excessive electromagnetic radiation (EMR) levels has revealed.
Mumbai Mirror got Cogent EMR Solutions Ltd, a noted Delhi-based company, to measure EMR levels at seven spots across the city. At five of these spots, the meter showed that radiation levels were far beyond acceptable limits. High radiation levels are known to cause brain damage and heart problems, apart from raising a host of other health issues.
The levels outside Mantralaya, the World Trade Centre and near Breach Candy Hospital were found to be unacceptably high. And if you thought your walk on the Marine Drive promenade was doing you a world of good and letting you breathe some fresh air, here’s the truth: EMR levels there are among the highest, and experts say “being there is like being in an X-ray machine.”
Ever since the debate on health hazards posed by phone tower radiation began worldwide nearly a decade ago, Mumbai has seen at least a few thousand such towers arise. The study done by Cogent reveals it’s now time to look at their ill-effects on our health.

Less than 1microW / squarem : ‘Ideal’

1 to 50 microW / squarem : ‘Weak Anomaly’

50 microW / squarem onwards : Varying degrees of ‘Strong Anomaly‘

The Wireless Planning & Coordination wing (WPC) allocates frequencies for the area the tower is to be set up in. These have to be abided by. Then approval has to be granted by either an IIT or the CRRI (Central Road Research Institute). A final approval is obtained from the BMC. In New Delhi or West Bengal, approval has to be gotten from Resident’s Welfare Associations as well. This is not necessary in Maharashtra, unless the association owns the roof the tower will be set on. So, if the roof is owned by a single flat owner, or one building out of more that comprise a Resident’s Welfare Association, the use of the roof to set up a tower does not require the Association’s permission. Where it does, the association is paid a handsome rent of upto Rs 70,000 per month (the rent for a tower on the Marine Drive buildings we featured), and bound to contracts for upto three years so they can’t back out. Many committee members, that we spoke to, on condition of anonymity, have spoken thus: “Important office bearers of the association are bribed with pay offs and free telephone connections, by a lobby that is today as powerful as the tobacco lobby.”

WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE THAT WE DON’T

US, UK and Canada have regulations stating that telecom towers should be 150 feet above the ‘level of human habitation’, not above ground.

Canada does not permit telecom towers within residential areas

Australia and UK assign to autonomous agencies the task of independent audit of levels of radiation emitted from telecom towers

Canada has the Safety Code 6 and USA the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) Bulletin as separate legislations for controlling radiation emission (India doesn’t have any – when they do, we recommend they start with implementing it around the Mantralaya).

This article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/7pus

mumbai talking
TOWER OF DOUBTS ARTICLE — RED ALERT ON CELL TOWER RADIATION; JULY 28, 2008
Iam a student and do not belong to any telecom company. I believe your cover story is misleading and lacks research. 1. The company ‘Cogent EMR Solutions Ltd’ uses guidelines set by some BM agency of Germany, which is not even locatable on the Internet. How did you verify whether the standards are correct? 2. All the locations covered by you seem to be well within the internationally accepted limits OR you blundered in typing m2 instead of cm2. 3. Agencies that set guidelines for radiation are ICNIRP (http://www.icnirp.de/), FCC & NCRP (USA) and several others in various countries.
4. European countries use 450 microW/cm2 and Salzburg Resolution of Austria uses a much more stringent EMR limit of 1 microW/cm2.
After converting to m2, which is used in your report, the limits become much more relaxed to 45,00,000 microW/m2 to 10,000 microW/m2.
5. Mumbai Mirror has simply given publicity to Cogent.
— Punit
RESPONSE
Dear Punit,
R1. To begin with, it’s not BM but Standards for Building Biology Testing Methods. Its latest standards are called SBM 2003 and are based on the most recent study done on human beings by Bau-Biologie, an independent body of German scientists.
Their website is buildingbiology.net.
The study can be found at www.baubiologie.de/downloads/english/SBM2003_engl_neu.pdf.
The standards are not for the telecom industry alone. They have been taken note of by courts, politicians, authorities and industry, including Gigahertz Solutions of Germany, Nova Institute of Germany and the Public Health Department of Salzburg,Austria.
Some countries have set more stringent standards than what SBM 2003 prescribes.
In the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, various agencies and institutions consider them the most sensible reference limits for testing, equipment manufacture, education and laboratory work.
R2&3. The readings are in microW/m2.
Till research is concluded, internationally accepted limits are only recommendations. Countries adapt these standards based on local conditions. For example, SBM 2003 states that EMR above 50 microW/m2 may be harmful to humans but New Zealand has set the limit at 200 microW/m2.
R4. Parameters vary with each country. The ones you have quoted are countries with stringent guidelines for installing mobile towers (mentioned in our article). For example, many countries don’t allow mobile towers on rooftops, near hospitals, schools and residential areas. In our test, we set the parameters to the EMR limit harmful to humans.
R5. Cogent EMR Solutions Ltd was the only company we could find to conduct these tests.
Thanks and keep writing.
RISHI MAJUMDER

This correspondence also  first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/w5rj

There were many other reactions to this article as well, which I’ll be posting here soon.

SUDHIR SURYAWANSHI AND RISHI MAJUMDER

Photographer:

Other than Mumbai University’s controversial desire to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the supposedly non-profit organisation conceals on its campus another profitable enterprise — selling grass!
Since 1972, a 40-acre stretch of Mumbai University land in Kalina has been used to grow grass, which is sold for about Rs 5,00,000 on the basis of tenders.
University garden superintendent S Y Dalvi says a tender for the sale of grass is floated on a certain date (fixed every year), awarding the yearly contract to the highest bidder. Buyers have to deposit a minimum amount before harvesting the grass.
“Anyone can apply for this. The revenue generated is used for developmental purposes, especially to enhance the university gardens,” Dalvi explains.
There are 10 to 15 bidders each year for the university’s grass. A person who has a contract to purchase the grass this year says he has been paying Rs 63,000 per month with a Rs 25,000 yearly deposit. On the competition among bidders every year for the fodder, he says, “It’s healthy competition, and the university makes money.”

‘LEAVE IT FOR SPORTS’
Rajesh Bhonkar, a second year MSc student and general secretary of the University Student Body, is incensed.
“More than selling grass for profit, the university should focus on enhancing facilities for students. They should have converted this land into a sports ground or garden for students to rejuvenate themselves in their free time,” he says.
The student council will discuss this in its forthcoming meeting and may decide to form a committee to oppose the university authorities using this land to grow and sell grass, Bhonkar says.

GRASS BREEDS MOSQUITOES
The grass patch also breeds mosquitoes, posing a health concern to residents of Government Quarters lining this land along the university boundary.
Says Kiran More, a resident of Building No 3 of the Government Quarters bordering this land, “The mosquitoes breeding on this land are a menace. Earlier, the government used to spray insecticide there to control them, but that has stopped now.”
“The mosquitoes are there in my house, outside and even in the library I manage,” laments Rekha Bole, a librarian with the Government Quarters Residents’ Association.
However, Tamshetvar Lakshman, secretary of the association, says the mosquito menace could also arise from open drains in the nearby slums.
“Once the BMC started fumigating these areas, the mosquito menace decreased considerably,” he says.

VARSITY: WHAT’S WRONG?
A senior Mumbai University authority says selling grass has been a university tradition for many years.
“It was directed by the Vice Chancellor, so we have to follow it. If somebody has an objection, the issue will be taken up in our next meeting,” he states.
“Filling up the entire low-lying area for a playground or garden would be pretty expensive.”

More than selling grass for profit, the university should focus on enhancing facilities for students. They should have converted this land into a sports ground or garden for students to rejuvenate themselves in their free time
— Rajesh Bhonkar, a second year MSc student and general secretary of the University Student Body

Grass breeds mosquitoes and they have become a menace.The mosquitoes breeding on this land are a menace. Earlier, the govt used to spray insecticide there to control them, but that has stopped now
— Kiran More, a resident of a
building bordering the land

This article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/iun4

Hi, for obvious reasons, I choose to be unnamed. Not because I haven’t given up drugs, but because otherwise society won’t let me ever forget that I once was a junkie. So suffice it to say I’m from the middle class, in my middle age and a businessman. I have a wife and child who are no longer with me. My favourite music was and is ‘60s and ‘70s Blues, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Let us start then from when I, college kid and confirmed brown sugar addict, who’d tried cocaine and LSD only briefly, told the truth at home…

DEEP AND DEEPER INTO DRUGS
Put into a
detoxification centre, the doctor told me to take a twomonth holiday as the ultimate cure. This didn’t quite work as I carried on with hashish and marijuana and was back on brown sugar in five months. With my father’s death and my habit worsening, I started doing the rounds: clean-up centres, shrinks… They’d pop me with substitute pills during the clean-up period which made me use brown — almost compulsively — the day I was out. I then joined the famous ’12 Step Fellowship Programme’, where a periodic group meeting of addicts and ex-addicts serve to put in place a self-help theory. This kicked off a process and I actually stopped doing drugs for four years. But, two mistakes occurred. I stopped attending the meetings, following some disagreements, thinking I didn’t need them any more. And I kept drinking. If one uses alcohol or substitute drugs to take a break from drugs, one is technically still an addict — it’s only a matter of time before you come back to your ‘favourite drug’ again! For me, that time happened—impulsively, as always in the case of a relapse, when I saw a brown sugar addict on the road, and asked him to get me some. Regular usage since landed me with impending gangrene on my fingers and an in-house detox at a friend’s Lonavla residence.

CLEAN AND THEN HELL AGAIN
Then followed a glorious six-year period where I gave up drugs as well as alcohol! I did amazingly well at my investment business, bought a house, got married to an awesome woman and had a child. I also started visiting the Fellowship again but somehow couldn’t use the ‘self help’ process to look into ‘myself’. Addiction persists due to certain character defects. If those aren’t quelled, abstinence – whether chemically induced or otherwise – crumbles. So when adverse circumstances (some were financial, others I kept shut about) struck suddenly, I clung to cocaine. Strains showed in my marriage for the first time, and the usage added to the monetary losses. I had to sell my house and move to another city. My wife, with our child, refused to move with me. Post my shift, I went on to do brown sugar, coke and morphine, with my weight dropping to 45 kgs and my entire arm being struck by impending gangrene. A detox centre I was at refused to take responsibility for me. My brother stepped in to have me discharged from there.

FINALLY, A DAWN
I hated the idea of ‘rehab’. I’d often been advised to try it by a counsellor or a friend. But my mental block stemmed from an obvious fact – being confined to one place for months on end! You can imagine the fit I threw when I woke up to find myself not at home, but in the Living Free Foundation Treatment Centre for Substance Abuse. Still reeling from the drugs I’d overdone, I didn’t consider that going home in this state would have led to doing more drugs, which, in time would lead to death. Within a month, however, I decided to give this my best shot.
Now, I, a sterling science and engineering graduate, have always been very cynical. But while treating this process very gingerly in the beginning, going through it gradually helped me cure my cynicism — which in itself was a root cause for addiction in weird ways.
Having finished the programme around a year ago, I’m clean now in a very different way from before. An incident that occurred a few months back however, must be shared. I was staying with a friend in D e l h i , who’d g o n e clean just like me. He told me one day, “Dude, I just relapsed.” I started shaking, thinking that his failure would discourage me into the same. But instead of keeping this to myself, like I would have earlier, I spoke to some friends about this immediately. My next decision was to confront him and say that if he didn’t throw the stuff out, I wouldn’t stay on at his place.
I keep visiting the centre, to help out as its staff now. The reason is more selfish than altruistic. Helping the people here out of their addiction, reminds me not to slip back into my own. The prospect of addiction, of any kind, never goes away. The first step towards fighting it, is understanding that it must be fought constantly…

— A S TOLD TO RISHI MAJUMDER

Here is a list of drug rehabilitation centres situated in various parts of Mumbai —
Kripa Foundation – Drug Awareness, Counselling, Assistance and Rehabilitation Centre
Mt. Carmel Church, 81/A Chapel Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai – 400 050. Ph: 26405411 / 26433027.
Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and Research Centre
H- Sitaram Bldg, Palton Road, Mumbai 400001 (India). Ph: 23453253.
Drug abuse management, treatment, counselling, rehabilitation, hiv/aids rehabilitation,
Opp. Tarabhai Hall, Marine Lines, Mumbai – 400021. Ph: 2817914.
Forum Against Drugs
2,Soona Mahal, 143,Marine Drive, Churchgate, Mumbai 400020. Ph: 22045441
National Addiction Research Centre
Bhardawadi Hospital, 5th Floor, Opp. Navrang, Andheri (W), Mumbai 400008.
Christian Unity Centre
A-Block, Teachers Quarters, Hume High School, (Opp. Seva Niketan), Byculla, Mumbai – 400 008.

This article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India: http://alturl.com/hv85