DELHI HAS LOTS TO RAVE ABOUT

Will a moon so bright ever arise again? Drink a cupful of wine and ask of
the sky. I don't know where the palace gate of heaven is, Or even the year
in which tonight slips by .

NEW DELHI : A starry night with the wind still and the moon shining in all
its splendour.

About 800 people gyrating to music at 150 beats a second at a clandestine
location near the Delhi-Gurgaon border in southwest Delhi . And before you
know it, you are one among the crowd, dancing with your arms in the air, as
if nobody knew you. Nobody does actually.

Welcome to the new-age, psychedelic nirvana or the rave parties where
almost nothing is taboo.

There is unbridled fun though. Hundreds of people, from anywhere between 15
to 40 years old, high on drugs like LSD, cocaine, Alprax, acid and
marijuana. Gone are the days when heroin and opium were considered "with it".

And gone are the days when cocaine was available at Rs 2,500-3,000 per gram
in these parties. "In the last year or so cocaine has become the lifeblood
of such parties.

There is a feeling that you can't enjoy raves if you don't have cocaine and
people are willing to pay as much as Rs 7,000 for a gram," says a director
of an event management company which organises rave parties. An acid shot
now comes at Rs 3,000 and ecstasy pills anywhere between Rs 800 to Rs
1,500. Another drug which is much in demand these days is Alprax, a mood
enhancer. The PLUR (peace, love, unity and respect) factor, which was
coined to describe the ideal rave vibe, is now beginning to take Delhi by
storm.

The parties, the invitations to which are mostly through SMS, web sites or
just by word of mouth, start only after midnight and continue till late in
the morning.

The frenzy of dancing is matched by the electronic dance music, commonly
called techno, which lulls the conscious mind even as it stimulates the
sub-conscious mind and body. "Even though raves are mainly restricted in
Delhi to farmhouses or big hotels, people here seem to be taking to trance
music in a big way. Most of the young DJs now know how to play it," says
Seema Gill, an associate with a Goa-based DJ.

Naturally, raves are the playground of the rich and the famous. The
organisers, however, tend to disagree.

"There are close to 100 rave parties held during weekends in south Delhi
and Gurgaon. It's not just models, fashion designers or members of rich
industrialist families now. Young corporate executives are taking part in a
big way," says the director.

For young executives, raves are fast taking over as a break from their
otherwise dour, competitive lives.

"This is one place where I don't need to watch my back all the time. I keep
coming back not because I can't enjoy the music elsewhere, but because of
the positive energy of the people around me who are allowed to have more
fun here than they would be outside," says Manish Singh, a manager with a
finance company based in Connaught Place.

Concurs Shamita Sachdev, a college-goer, "There is almost a mystical
experience about the meaning of life and death here; an escape from the
world of imperfections. It's a celebration of life to me."

Most ravers, however, deny the popular perception of these parties as sex
orgies or a place where predatory sexual behaviour is encouraged. "I think
the use of ecstasy which is linked with sexual abandon has fuelled this
perception. There is nothing to suggest that there are random sexual acts
in these parties, at least not yet," says Sachdev.

Others like Singh, however, believe that fun in any form at the raves is
what keeps them going. "There is nothing predictable about ravers except
for the fact that they all want to have fun. What's wrong with it?"