Back in 2022, just a year before my father was about to retire, he had come to stay with me at our cousin’s place in Gangtok.

Back then, I didn’t know that my father and mother had had a huge fight. I was smoking brown sugar every day back then. Instead of attending classes at college, I would be out with friends who were much older than me, looking for drugs.

One Sunday, when Brahmastra was in theatres, I told my father that I’d go out in the neighbourhood for a few hours and return home.

I asked him for 500 rupees, and he gave me 2000 rupees. After getting the money, I left home in my Crocs, grey joggers and a sweatshirt with a sleeveless grey jacket.

I called my dealer and asked him to keep 2000 rupees worth of brown sugar for me. Then I walked to my best friend’s home, who is more of a brother to me.

We smoked it all; 2000 rupees gone in an instant, and the high lasted only about 10-15 minutes.

At least, our withdrawals were not troubling us anymore.

Then Rajeev told me that it was his sister’s birthday that day and that he would manage the money for sugar later. He also invited me to celebrate her birthday. I couldn’t say no.

I had left home at around 10 A.M., and for Samiksha di’s birthday, she decided to take her whole family and me to watch the Brahmastra movie at the theatre.

The movie would start by 5 P.M., and we had decided to leave for the theatre at 3 P.M. to beat the Gangtok traffic.

By 2 P.M., Rajeev and I felt like smoking more sugar. So I called up my mom and told her that I was going to watch a movie with a friend and asked her for 2000 rupees again. She sent me 1500 rupees. Then the same shit happened. Call the dealer. Get the stuff. Ready the aluminium foil. Smoke the sugar with cigarettes.

We had gotten really high by now.

At 5 P.M., we reached the theatre to watch the movie. During the interval, Rajeev bought more sugar from a dealer, and we decided to smoke it later after getting home.

The movie ended at around 8 P.M., and the birthday girl wanted to go to karaoke.

After getting to the restaurant at Lal Bazaar, Rajeev’s family started ordering food and drinks.

Rajeev and I went to his car and smoked some more sugar, and then we got back to the restaurant, had a few shots of vodka.

When I checked my phone, I had 4 missed calls from my father. As I was checking my notifications, he called again and said,” Son, when will you get home? I was hoping father and son could have dinner together tonight.”

Inside the restaurant, everyone was dancing and singing. Rajeev’s family was drunk, but he and I were drunk and high.

I pulled Rajeev aside and told him that my father was waiting for me and that I needed to leave. It was already 10:30 P.M. by then, and I’d have to reserve a local taxi to get to 5th Mile, which would cost me at least 200 rupees.

But I also wanted to smoke the bit of sugar we had saved for later. Instead of having dinner with my father, I chose to stay and smoke more of the substance.

Almost at 12 A.M., all of us decided to leave the restaurant and get home.

Between 10:30 P.M. to 12 A.M., my father had called me multiple times. I didn’t answer any of his calls. By now, only the small pipe, which we used to smoke sugar, was left with us. It had all the residual sugar left inside it.

We were going to smoke it at Rajeev’s place. He and I left the restaurant before his family to take the car out. Our car could be easily taken out since it was parked at a perfect spot, but something happened to Rajeev.

Two cars were in between the road, facing each other, each car had 5 guys each, verbally arguing against each other.

Rajeev and I were walking towards our car, and then suddenly he went in between the two groups, pointed towards the leaders of both the groups and said,” Oi! Stop making noise, you fuckers, and fuck off!”

One group apologised and left in their vehicle. The leader from the other group was very drunk, and he started to challenge Rajeev to a fight.

Rajeev knocked him out with a single right hook. As I watched, no one dared to step up from the knocked-out guy’s group to come and challenge Rajeev to a fight.

The guy, after sleeping for some time, woke up, and then Rajeev (I still have no idea why he did all of this) decided to apologise to the guy and asked me to give him a cigarette. I reluctantly gave him one, as we would need cigarettes later in the night to smoke the residual sugar in our pipes.

The guy, after smoking the cigarette, brought a 3-foot rusty knife and a rusty steel rod and started screaming towards Rajeev,” Oi! Motherfucker, I don’t have a dad or a mom! I have no family! Oi, you motherfucker! Motherfucker I’ll kill you!”

Because I know Rajeev lost his mother at a very young age, I lose my temper when someone calls him a motherfucker. Rajeev was near our car, the guy with the weapons was towards my right, just a few feet away, and I was in the middle.

A momentary lapse of reason caused me to charge towards the guy and throw a quick straight right hand and an uppercut. He fell on the ground, his face covered in blood. As I mounted him and was about to throw more punches at him, his friends came and stopped me, holding my arm and saying,” Agya(Big brother), please don’t hit him anymore!”

After paying the bill and finally coming outside, Samiksha di and Rajeev’s family saw the commotion.

Perhaps a resident of the area called the police. Soon, a police car arrived and the guy I had punched started to lie down in front of the police car, acting extremely hurt.. from the police.

Three punches caused my brother and me from another mother to stay at the Sardar Thana cell till 3 A.M.

I reached back home at around 5 A.M. and met my father and lied to him, saying that a few drunk guys had catcalled my female college friends, and I had gotten in a fight with them.

He told me,” Don’t be a hero!”

Just very recently this year, my elder cousin passed away mysteriously at the age of 35.

Through my eyes, he was a real G. During his funeral, his widowed wife, my bhawju (sister-in-law), was crying her eyes out.

The night before, we attended his funeral. My father,  I and my elder brother sat down to talk. While drinking whiskey, my father revealed that the night I was locked up in a cell till 3 A.M. during my college days, he was almost going to commit suicide because I hadn’t come home that night.

Thankfully, my father is still alive and healthy, and thankfully, I was able to attend my elder cousin’s funeral and learn that there’s much more suffering to go through in life.

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