well my family is from india...i was born in toronto and basically raised in detroit shortly after i was born (university in soCal).
mom is from matunga, cousins in chembur & mulund. bombay is huge - when i stayed there last time, i took the train by myself (i dont speak/understand hindi) to victoria terminus & started walking around. i was told that the mosque there was a great spot to score ganja/charas...i didnt feel comfortable asking anyone there when i checked it out. i ended up finding a taxi driver who was a malayali (my dads from kerala) who hooked me up with like 6 balls of hash for 150rs i believe (you gotta haggle)...it was so funny...he went to find his buddy who knew english, so he could translate my english to/from malayalam...we went to a small hotel (a type of restaurant in india), i bought them chiaya (i dont drink it/coffee), the cabbie ran & got it & brought it back to the cafe. then i paid the bill, tipped the busboy, & gave them a 150Rs extra & parted ways. about 30sec later, the cabbie came back & wanted to smoke a puff with me so he led me down some alleys & we smoked a chillum with hash/tobacco mixed up. that was the only time i was nervous during the whole thing when we were smoking in the alley.
then, just after all of that, i was walking around that neighborhood & EVERYONE was asking me "coffeeshop?" over in that neighborhood...i dont know what the name of that little neighborhood was...
ive scored ganja in bombay, bangalore, & a small small village in the himalayas called pawalli or ghuttu...it truly wasnt a village but more like a spot that the herders camped to let their cattle graze during the accessible portion of the year up there. took a great long hike all the way up to kedarnath. ive also scored ganja in pune. i scored hash in rishikesh, bombay, goa, and the kerala/tamil nadu border.
i pretty much tried to get it everywhere i possibly could to see how people partied over there & get myself into little independent adventures (cuz im mostly doing family stuff). its SO fun to smoke in india. i never smoked cigs before, but i got a few packs of bidis over there. its a great way to start a conversation & talk to people over there. offering cigarettes is probably more preferred by them but i have a lifelong grudge against cigarettes so only stuck to bidis.
i usually hang out with my cousins, but only one of them has smoked with me like 6 or so times and a few of his friends a few times. otherwise im the only ganja smoker in their group of friends. they are more drinkers/cig smokers.
my dad is from the tiniest village on the edge of kerala. everybody knows everybody over there so im kind of a character when we do visit. but some fucking AWESOME times over there borrowing my cousins bicycle, peddling into the middle of nowhere in some fields in kerala (theres so few roads that its not too hard to remember directions - so id just go anywhere), and when i did get lost a few times, id just ask how to get to a particular village name & everyone knows the surrounding villages (harder to find someone who knows english in backwoods-kerala). but most villagers are helpful. i could always say my family name & theyd probably know where to send me (my grandfather was one of the first doctors in that small little place), but i didnt want people to know who i was cuz stories travel & then they pay more attention to you & stuff...
if any of you desis are familiar with kerala, my family is close to malamphuza dam (if that tells you anything about the scenery in those surrounding villages).
one time i just biked out to some really isolated place, where the village culture was noticeably different...just a whole different vibe all around. i found a place to smoke & just watched the farmers work the field & the cows graze, the rice paddies...just one of the best times in my life. i would SO grow in my dads hood.
one summer when i went there i actually brought a very little bit (like 3 spliffs) of regular weed from usa really really carefully. it was my first & only time & i got away with it. but the few people i smoked a spliff with over there got BLAZED off of it. so i believe that unless you are up north or in a really college-y place, its hard to get good ganja in the central-west india & south india...i havent ventured too far east india...thats a goal of mine. south is a GREAT place to grow it though...well i guess anywhere pretty much is...
i love talking india & i love talking ganja so thats why this is so long sorry...
i also want to do all jyotirlingas in my life & have done 4 so far...so that should take me to orissa & east i believe someday. i also want to do varanasi (havent yet) & i HAVE to do pashupatinath nepal.
btw flight pathway for me is always detroit --> amsterdam --> bombay...so i have got to do amsterdam for 5 days once! for a ganja connoisseur, cali is probably the mecca of the world (in terms of diversity & trends & stuff)...sorry if i insulted anyone else at FC for saying that...i know theres pretty much everyone from the world here.
i was actually thinking about finding out how many true desis were on here from the motherland. but i wonder how many people from china are on here? they are the most populous on the globe so i really want to hear their ganja stories, too.
but over in india, i didnt vape. pipes are sold everywhere so its very easy to just get chillums that you dispose everywhere...
reminds me of another funny story of mine in india...me & my cousin hiked to the gir forest in gujurat (its actually a state thats dry - does NOT sell alcohol). anyways, we had a few bottles on us when we got there, camped out in the jungle, & i had my ganja & chillum that i was smoking on. anyways, one day, i had my stash & stuff in my room & somehow it accidentally got thrown out while cleaning. i had my ganja in a cellophane wrap that i flame-sealed (the plastic on the cigarette boxes - my cousin smokes cigs). anyways, it was missing somehow! i kind of complained to the owner (i wasnt mad, i was just like "damn i lost my ganja...that sucks") & he sent his 4 sons all over looking everywhere for a plastic sealed ganja sack!!!! i was looking too...it was so funny...the son who threw it out actually found it somewhere outside the window & gave it back to me!!!! it was so funny...the son ended up going to town for some supplies & stuff later on that week & came back with a local-made chillum for me (nothing fancy at all, just very plain, no designs or artwork - just a very functional piece)...it was so nice of him. they were actually SUPPORTING my ganja-smoking! i always made it a point to strike up conversations & learn about people and be open to all types of experiences over there...that type of attitude can make you a lot of allies in india (& probably everywhere while traveling)...you cant allow language to be a barrier...there are so many ways to communicate when language isnt available.
ive de-seeded & rolled up spliffs on public govt buses over there, smoked in train bathrooms, never was obnoxious about it but never really hid it either...most people had absolutely no problems with it. a lot of times, nobody paid me any attention to what i was smoking, just staring at me for other reasons (hairstyle, clothes, shoes, accent...).
the truth is that there is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many people around you at all times & 75% of them are smoking on SOMETHING that there is so many smells & distractions to pay attention to if someones smoking a spliff or not. ive walked around & caught odors in the air, but most of the time i would not know how to even find where its coming from.
people are used to everyone around them stealing, pickpocketing, spitting, smoking (bidis, ganja, or cigarettes), swearing, cheating, touching, grabbing, walking, shitting, pissing, dodging cows, keeping your eye on monkeys (yes, MONKEYS) so they dont steal your stuff, buses, rickshaws, cars, bikes, ox-pulled carts, ELEPHANTS from time to time, snakes...the last thing they are thinking about is if someones smoking ganja in their vicinity (there could be 30 or more people in their immediate 3 meter radius). for the few moments of relax & chill, make friends around you & theyll even strike a match to light your chillum for you!
man sorry if this post is so scattered...reading through it just made me think about all these things & even more india stories i have...
im really interested in hearing your smoking stories in india (doesnt have to be as detailed). but do you smoke with school friends? what age did you start smoking there? how the hell did you get into vaporizers? how much do you pay? when you travel within india, how do you look for hookups? do you ask sadhus or ask at the bidi-wallas or ask random people? its very interesting to me...not many people i know have gone to india & smoked there...
again, sorry for the super long, random thoughts...