Goa's millennium parties promise heady remix

Goa's millennium parties promise heady remix
SHIV KUMAR

GOA, DECEMBER 30: Vintage Enfield motorbikes whose handles rise up to the rider's head, psychedelic tattoos on well-built biceps, a phosphorescent Nataraja, grunge clothing, hard rock music, cocaine.... Here's is yet another "season" in Goa.

For the millennium party "ravers" from the West have flocked to India's sunshine state for the infamous beach parties fuelled by "trance music" and an abundant supply of narcotics. It may not quite be the hippie years of the 1960s and '70s but a section of the tourism industry in Goa is working hard to bring back the magic.

Despite a court order last week banning what was billed as Goa's biggest rave at Anjuna beach, the party craze continues unabated in the State. The 12-day-long non-stop rave party promised by Ness and Jehangir Wadia, sons of industrialist Nusli Wadia, was banned by the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court following a public interest petition against the bash.

During the hearing it transpired that the organisers of the party had illegally encroached on land surrounding a hotel leased to them by the tourism department.

Though the area of the hotel itself was just 500 sqm, more than 70,000 sqm of land belonging to the State Government was allegedly encroached upon. Moreover, the lease for the hotel itself had expired on September 30 and was not renewed by the Government, the court was told. The Wadias had promised non-stop music and dancing with live coverage by music channels and disc jockeys doing the honours.

But the biggest do at most of the rave parties, it is believed, is the unrestricted supply of drugs at the party. Websites on the Internet like www.goatrance.de/goafreak provide more than enough indication about the action on and off stage. Posters advertising the parties with provocative slogans like "choose your kind of poison" leave little to the imagination.

Though the acid parties are on at various night-clubs since October, four big parties were held till Christmas eve according to web-sites which offer comprehensive information on trance parties worldwide. The first was kicked off on November 14 at Vagator beach. Five days later another party was held at Anjuna. The biggest affairs will however be at Tirakol fort and Vagator beach on New Year's eve.

The parties organised by one Sonic-E, are expected to feature some well-known bands from Mumbai and DJs of music channels. Sonic-E's web-site also provides detailed instructions complete with e-mail addresses for transporting revellers from all over the country to the parties. The web-sites come complete with message boards for revellers to connect with each other and co-ordinate transportation. Quite a few students and residents of Rajneesh's ashram from Pune have offered their vehicles to transport party-goers to Goa.

The web-sites come complete with links to pages which offer safety advise on drug-usage. Ravers are told how to avoid overdosing on drugs like Ecstasy, amphetamines and LSD. Information on how to consume the drugs, orally or as injectibles are also available on the Net.

Naturally, the ban on one party does not deter "ravers" who cross continents just to party. Lounging on the verandah of a restaurant on Alangute beach James Norton and his girlfriend Shirley McGowan from England are determined to make the most of the rave parties. "It's real cool and it goes on and on," says Norton of the rave parties in Goa. Though the parties here lack the sophistication of the Western nightclubs, the freedom purchased with bribes more than makes up for it. "They still play music out of CD players here," notes a surprised Shirley who misses the hi-tech turntables and other audio equipment from back home. Of course, the 8,000 watts of soul-numbing trance music which goes on into the afternoon of the next day more than makes up for it.

Also unlike the dos abroad which are often organised in deserted warehouses, the rave parties in Goa are held in the open and entry is free. However, vendors who peddle everything from bottled water to designer drugs easily make a killing. Police sources say drug-dealers from Manali and even Nepal flock to Goa with ganja and charas to cater to the needs of the tourists. However drugs like cocaine, LSD, and designer drugs like Ecstasy are peddled mainly by foreigners. The grapevine has it that big-time drug dealers in the State with connections to the international narcotics trade are hoarding drugs in anticipation of a windfall on New Years' eve.

Every entrepreneur and Government official on Goa's beach belt is angling for a piece of the action. "The owner of the land where the parties are held, the officials in the mamlatdar's office who issue permissions for the parties, local policemen, politicians all of them are paid off," admits a senior police officer.

Incidentally, police officials in the State profess ignorance about the information floating around the Net. "These parties begin innocently but end up as something else," says Director General of Police R S Sahaye. He insisted that the State Government was determined to crack down on nudity and drug usage at the parties. However, according to records, very few drug traffickers are being arrested in Goa. In 1998, all of 19 cases of drug trafficking were detected. In the year before, the number was just eleven. The largest number of drug-related cases, 40, were reported in 1996.

"Without definite information we cannot raid people as we have to present a tourist-friendly face," says Sahaye. Other officials say some foreign tourists are generally trained in martial arts making it dangerous for ill-equipped police personnel to tackle them.

Criminal lawyers, however, blame the rate of low detection on corruption in the police force. "Often people are caught with drugs on them, but they pay off the police either on the spot or at the police station," says advocate Peter D'Souza. The anti-narcotics cell of the Goa police itself has been tainted by allegations that its members plant drugs on innocent tourists to extract money from them. Last month, the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted two British nationals Alexia Stewart and her boyfriend Gary Carter in a drug case where the police allegedly planted cannabis on them.

The horror stories do not deter the hard-core ravers who flock to Goa from various parts of the world. James Norton and Shirley McGowan, both students of micro-biology back home in England, are on their second visit to Goa. And they hope to come again.