ten hits from a chillum, and not every psytrancer assumes the role of chillum-
maker. There can be irritation about “chillum hoppers” who use their popularity to
grab hits everywhere around the rave or bar without making any chillums
themselves. After the last smoldering bits are skillfully blown out of the top, the
stone inside is removed, and a friend holds one end of a safi^3 as it is pulled and
rubbed through the chillum to clean it. By peeping through the hole in the direction
of a light source, the smoothness of the shaft is checked; if the chillum is sufficiently
expensive not a particle should remain. Then the whole process starts anew. Goa
freaks can do this the whole day long: heating, mixing, filling, lighting, smoking,
cleaning, peeping.
The amount of smoke one obtains from a chillum is much tougher for the lungs
to digest than is the case with joints. The idea is, moreover, to impress with the sheer
volume of smoke ingested. If the first smoker’s head is clouded by fumes, one can
hear encouraging laughs and cries of “Bom Shankar!” No wonder, then, that one
can hear coughing everywhere in Anjuna, especially during the morning. The thicker
the cough, the cooler. But no matter how frequent the smoking or how potent the
hash, you’re not supposed to get stoned in Anjuna. The giggles, talking bullshit or
philosophy, sleepiness, sluggishness, munchies, and staring into space that are often
associated with cannabis are very much avoided amongst Goa’s regulars. One is to
keep one’s cool, manage the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in the blood, keep talking
and walking straight.
The practical knowledge of coordinating hands, lungs, mouth, brain, legs, and
eyes necessary successfully to smoke the chillum has to be acquired, of course. And
those who have acquired it tend to stick together. This is what Sarah Thornton
(1995), following Bourdieu, calls “subcultural capital.” She argues that subcultural
capital leads to hipness as an exclusionary identification. If a somewhat naive tourist
at a rave attempts to open up a chillum circle and asks for a hit, it will be only with
the greatest reluctance that the thing is shared. Being admitted into the most
privileged of chillum circles—the “posse” around the DJ and organizers of raves
(restaurant owners, drug dealers, and some local men)— is little short of a blessing.
And so, the chillum produces cliques of Italians and Israelis, French speakers and
English speakers, old-timers and newcomers. Within the cliques, there is a certain
degree of smooth space, communion, spiritual becomings-smoke, becomings-sadhu,
becomings-Shiva. But every organ still does what it does in other situations. In fact,
effectively denying the chemical impact on the brain, there is even more
organization required than if one didn’t smoke; it is the discipline which makes
chillum space hermetic. And outside the chillum circle there roam the package deal
tourists, domestic tourists, and backpackers passing through Anjuna who can’t
manage the hash, don’t even know where to buy it, and might find all the ritualism
quite silly or else intimidating.
278 ARUN SALDANHA