Round Table Ethicate

The charas is almost always mixed with tobacco. You have to roast the cigarette first though by passing it quickly over a naked flame and there are few worse smells in existance. The charas is never burnt to make it softer as with hashish but instead crumbled by hand and mixed with the tobacco in a tin or dried coconut shell.

Then you need to wet the safi cloth. This makes it a good deal easier on the lungs. You insert the small, conical stone that sildes down the neck to the chillum and pour in the mix. Chillums vary a good deal in size and capacity but one feature of a longer chillum is that the smoke cools down on the way and you tend to smoke more than is good for you..

The next part of the ceremony is crucial if you don’t want the average sadhu or Goa Freak to hit you over the head with the fire tongs – on no account ever put your lips to the chilum. It’s not a pipe. Instead you have to master an arrangement of cupping the hands as though you were playing the harmonica. Your hands form a closed prism around the bottom of the chillum, the safi cloth and your mouth. Then you can draw heavily and the smoke pours merrily into your lungs.

The chillum is lit by a second party and before you inhale you get to shout one of the praises to Shiva such as “Alack” or “Bom Shankar”. The first person to smoke has to puff like a train to get the thing started and then pass it to the right, preferably supporting his right arm with his left. The required etiquette can become quite complex and the average Westerner has little or no chance of meeting the ritual standards of a sadhu. Then again your average Italian chillum fascist in the Parvati Valley can be just as pedantic.

In the old days you could buy chillums on the street ready prepared with a charas and tobacco mix. You bought, smoked and then threw the clay chillum onto the ground. It broke and returned to its place of origin. India has been into recycling for thousands of years.

However, once Nancy Reagan got going on her ‘just say no’ campaign in the 1980’s War on Drugs, draconian legislation was introduced in India against the possession of charas. Chillums are still for sale in shops (without the charas) and can be incredibly ornate, set with snakes or Indian gods. Prices range from $1-20.

The Italians chillum fascists went one step further and came up with designer chillums. Just as they brought their national excellance to the cultivation of charas up in the Himalayas they were also compelled to bring some class to the world of chillums. Those made by names like Franco may sell for up to $500. They’re made of glass, crystal and ceramic and the former chillums light up as you smoke. You’ll only ever see them on the Goa Trance scene though – the purists in the mountains only use clay.