My first (and last) joint, hopefully! →[More:]Another week-end, another night at Vijay and Avinash's. Only this time, we thought we'd make things a little bit interesting. George, who's had the most experience amongst all of us as far as getting and using dope is concerned, offered to get us some good quality weed to light up on Friday afternoon/evening, after we all got off from work. Since I've heard so much about weed from my US friends, and all the television soaps that I've seen--Iwanted to try it out and see what would happen.

Our salaries were supposed to be credited by 1st, but we had to wait till 8 PM it had been informed to us until we could start taking cash out from the ATMs. Everyone was broke so we were waiting around at Avinahs's and Vijay's for the clock to strike 8, and then make a bee-line for the ATMs. George had already left directly from office to a place called Dhoolpet, which is on the outskirts of the city, to get the weed.

By 8 o'clock, everyone started heading out to check up on their accounts. The first two to come back were Arijeet and Jude. Arijeet had apparently gotten 5,000 Rupees, 12,000 short of what was due to him. Jude hadn't checked up on his yet, so we all freaked out a bit and everyone went one by one to see what the fuck was going on. I took Vijay on my bike to the nearest ATM (I'd told him that we'd go to the one that was a little further down the road, the one which belonged to our bank, but he said it was alright since we could make upto ten free transactions on any ATM in the city without being charged for it).

So we stopped at ICICI bank and Vijay went inside to look up his account info. (By the time he came out he also seemed miffed--he was missing 10,000 Rupees).

We decided to go home from there. I'd already given Avinash a lift to another ATM and his account seemed alright.

A couple of the other guys also came back and they'd had the same problem. Me, I hadn't gotten paid for the past two months because I had not yet given my pan card number to the Pay Roll department, which our government has made it mandatory in order to get paid. So when I'd handed it over to the PR desk last week, and asked them if both the months' salaries would get credited into my account--they said yes. However, I only ended up getting one month's pay--9,000 Rupees, but at least I'd gotten the full amount.

Everyone seemed a little disheartened but we decided to take it up with HR on Monday, and rip the bastards to shreds. We weren't exactly in the mood to party, but we'd all gathered at Vijay and Avinash's, and we were all feeling hungry, so we decided to at least put some food into our mouths. I've been on a diet for the past few weeks, so I usually skip lunch (yeah--yeah--I know how bad that is for my health in the long run, etc, etc,--but my mom's been on my back forever to lose the weight I'd gained in the interceding months by binging on Mc Donald's and Pizza Hut and KFCs, so I thought I would--and by god I've lost some weight; my pants are literally falling off of my hips, and I've gone from a size 42 to a size 38 in a month or two)!!!

Anyway, so as we were all feeling hungry, we started making our trips to the Chicken Centre and the Liquor shops to get what we could. By the time we'd gotten back it had started to pour really heavily but thankfully the food wasn't drenched. It was quite hot actually. 8 fried chickens, and a couple of bottles of Bacardi Rum, along with some orange juice I think.

George had been calling us all evening and giving us updates about where he was and how long he would be taking to get to our place. By the time he'd actually gotten there it was already ten and we had started to dig in, not wanting to let the food turn cold.

George had brought along a couple of friends of his who were also marijuana users, so they sat there and started rolling a joint. Took them quite a while too. I had already finished my food and was ready to see what all the fuss was about. George had already told me about what to expect (think happy thoughts, and you'll be in a good mood; think bad thoughts, and you might get upset--so just chill and let it take you wherever it does). I thought that was a lot of bull--no cigarette like thing was going to take control of my brain. He'd also told me that I'd start seeing things and that I'd be in a magical place all of a sudden. I said okay, and went into the room where we were going to light up with Vijay and Jude, who were going to join me and George and his three buddies.

So there we were, all sitting in a perfect circle, and George did the honours. Jude was sitting next to me and he took the next few puffs and passed the joint onto me, advising me on how to do it (I'd gotten plenty of this from almost everyone even though they thought it was a bad idea for me to be doing it, but I was adamant--I wanted to see for myself what this thing was that everyone kept talking about).

I took the three drags that they'd told me to take, but I think I didn't take it all that well, because I couldn't feel anything the first time, just a slight buzz. The next time, after George's three friends, Vijay and he had had a drag, I saw Jude and made a note of how he was sucking it in; he wasn't letting any of the smoke out, but swallowing it for some reason, so I decided to do the same and see what would happen.

Shit, that just about killed me. I was able to swallow it, but after that, I felt like puking, but I was able to control it. By the time the joint was over I'd already passed on two consecutive turns saying that I'd had my fun, and since the room was completely closed--the smoke in there had really gotten too much. Jude, who was sitting next to me, started waving his hands around and saying that it was enough and that we should stop, thinking that I could not see his hand. I was laughing from within and wondering what do these guys think I am--retarded or something. I told Jude without even looking at him that I knew what he was doing.

By this time Vijay had already put out the joint saying that it was over just for the sake of getting me out of there because the other guys were going to finish it till the end. We all came out and closed the door behind us and I could feel sweat all over my brow, and this funny feeling in my stomach. They told me that whenever you're planning to take this stuff that you should have plenty of food and water.

I came and sat down with the rest of the guys and everyone kind of sort of started acting funny. They were obviously curious to know how I was feeling since Ravi, Sudhakar, Naren, Avinash and Arijeet had not joined me. Arijeet was kind of upset asking George why he had to do this to me, and George said that he had done nothing--that I'd wanted to try it out, and I reiterated it in unison.

I started noticing that they were putting on all the girlie channels, with women showing their butts in bikinis and busts in tight tops. I started laughing again and said that they were lame, and added that I was more happy being there with all of them than watching some crap on tv.

George turned around and said, "What did you say??? What did you say???" and seemed to be satisfied with my response. I tired to focus on his friends but no one seemed to be as out of it except me, and Jude of course, who had already stepped outside the house and kept walking for a couple of minutes.

Vijay sat in the living room for some more time and then decided to join his girlfriend in their bedroom. He was actually supposed to get her admitted into a Paying Guest house but since he didn't have the cash now she had come home with him.

She's a cool girl so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Only problem was I was starting to hallucinate, which I didn't realize at that time. Arijeet, who had on the previous week-end told me that he had quit doing Korex (which is an ink-correction liquid whose fumes you inhale to get high on; it's cheap and basically available at any stationery shop, including mine, and when my dad found out that this is the use that people would make out of it, he'd banned all the college kids who would come by to buy the bottles from him).

So, as soon as I saw him doing what he was doing--you take the polythene cover and use it's handles to place it over your ears, and you put the correction fluid in that and start breathing it in--I went ape-shit. At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing, because it was the most disgusting thing I'd seen. I wanted to get up and punch him, good and hard. But then something else came over me, for some reason I began to think that this whole thing was a joke and Arijeet would not do this to me, and so was able to relax a bit. I sort of laughed again and declared to everyone that I knew everything that was going on and that they had been planning this for weeks.

That's what really bugged me: had all of these guys got together to see what would happened to me. The drug was really starting to take effect now, and I could feel it.

I got up once again (not to fall for the prank that everyone was anticipating I would, or at least that's what I believed). Some one told me that I'd smoked 7 cigarettes continuously so everyone was keeping an out for me.

I'm still feeling sleepy, although this is a Sunday morning, and I'd had it on Friday evening. (I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen songs and can hardly keep my eyes open, although I've just gotten a call from a friend of mine who wants to go out somewhere, I guess I'll have my lunch and head on over to his place.)

Has anyone else had weed before? C'mon--you guys must've--in your youth at least. How did it feel the first time you took it, do you still take it, and how does it make you feel now if you do. Don't worry, I don't plan on making this a habit or something; I enjoy my cranial powers too much to be usurped by this shit.