Ras Bhang
Between 1998 and 2008, Akshaya Bahibala surrendered to substance abuse. Cannabis smoke, intoxicating drinks, numbing highs and crushing lows—all playing out amongst travellers and drifters on Puri's beaches. Then something shifted. He clawed his way back from that precipice, taking work where he could find it: waiting tables, selling goods, hawking books. Each job a small act of defiance against oblivion. What unfolds is remarkable. Bahibala weaves together the fractured pieces of his own experience with portraits of ordinary people living in Odisha's remote villages, their worlds revolving entirely around intoxicants. There's the shopkeeper, licensed by the state, who peddles cannabis with religious fervour, insisting his wares possess spiritual properties. An opium processor recalls learning his trade as a child, transforming sticky poppy paste into neat tablets. A girl conquered cholera through opium addiction, only to remain enslaved by it for life. Farmers cultivating cannabis clash violently with excise officials bent on destruction. Woven through these voices are UN medical reports on cannabis, government seizure statistics, and unexpectedly, recipes for bhang sweets and traditional remedies. This isn't straightforward reportage. It's a disorienting, darkly entertaining exploration of one of India's most widespread—yet least examined—addictions, told through memory, anecdote, data and deeply human stories.
- Author: Akshaya Bahibala
- Publisher: Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt. Ltd.
- Genre: Travel Writing & Guides
- ISBN: 978-9360863005
- Pages: 200 pages