HYDERABAD: Holi is not just a festival of colours for many enthusiastic Hyderabadis, but an occasion to consume `Bhang', the narcotic which is believed to take the user on a `trip' which lasts for the entire day.

It's only on the day of Holi, March 14 this year, that Bhang is freely sold and offered at several places. So freely that whenever someone offers a soft drink or a paan, people generally ascertain whether it is laced with `bhang', albeit jocularly.

Begum Bazaar, a commercial hub in the old city, is one such place where shops spring up on the day to sell Bhang. These shops have their own patrons. But Bhang is sold only to acquaintances or those coming with a reference.

The herbal intoxicant is taken by mixing it either with badaam milk, sweets or paan. `Gulab jamun' and `Kala jamun' are the favourites in which it is mixed. The effect of Bhang, unlike other intoxicants, lasts on a person for a day, even if a small quantity of 10 or 20 gm is consumed.

Light view

With the consumption of `Bhang' on the festival day being taken as traditional, the police too take a lighter view of the sale and consumption, at least for the day. "We get it from agency areas and neighbouring districts. But we don't sell Bhang on other days. It's just on the Holi day," a Bhang trader disclosed, while pleading anonymity. The traders first collect the Bhang leaves, crush them in a grinder and then sell the semi-solid substance to customers known only to them.

Explaining the custom of consuming Bhang on Holi, Maheswari Yuva Sangh secretary Ram Prakash Bhandari says the revellers who eat Bhang feel that it controls anger, jealousy and other negative emotions.

"Holi has become synonymous with having Bhang at Begum Bazaar. For years we have been there for Holi and we will do it this time also," S. Anil Kumar, a businessman from Secunderabad said.

He said he and his friends were going to Begum Bazaar for the last five years and celebrating the festival on a grand scale. But the dark side of the `Bhang trip' is that revellers who go for a swim in lakes around the city get drowned.

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