More interesting than the cluster of villages that is Bhatta-Parsaul is the town of Kasganj. Both in god’s own Uttar Pradesh, the former has visitors dropping by for a meal of dal, chapatis and buttermilk to turn it into a ‘Nandigram’. (Although, with farmers keen to sell their lands to the government but for a better price, the comparison with ‘Singur’ would be more apt than ‘Nandigram’ where farmers simply didn’t want to part with their lands.) But in Kasganj, all signs are that it’s already a mini-Ibiza, considering the news of the police busting a ‘rave party’ that also reportedly came with the surfacing of “sleazy videos of young men and women”. Do we then believe that Kasganj is ‘where it’s at’ and start packing our bags for a fun-filled weekend?
The police are keen to let the media know that “21 nude youngsters” who were dancing to “sensuous numbers” were arrested. We are keen to know what the “sensuous numbers” were, tired as we are trying to oomph up our own house parties with the same old ‘Sheila ki jawani’ and very ‘unsensuous’ ‘DK Bose’ number. The authorities also mentioned that their haul included “bottles of branded liquor”, contraceptives, aphrodisiacs and “psychotropic substances”. Interestingly, we get a breakdown of the rave party’s demographics that any psephologist would have been proud to rattle off: 16 men out of whom 11 were ‘locals’ and “all five women hailing from New Delhi”. Since we have been told that most of the men and women were married, we can only presume that marital status is an incredibly important part of the investigations.
A local social activist, perhaps ruing the lost opportunity of feeding more important visitors from Delhi with buttermilk a la Bhatta-Parsaul, stated that he could not believe “that this can happen in the town which is otherwise known for delicious mithai and ghee”. The police officer in charge of the raid thinks that the Kasganj bust is “only the tip of the iceberg”. We certainly hope so as semi-urban India finally gets its own taste of consensual fun between adults, till recently monopolised by the Beautiful People only in our fun-loving cities.
{{/usCountry}}A local social activist, perhaps ruing the lost opportunity of feeding more important visitors from Delhi with buttermilk a la Bhatta-Parsaul, stated that he could not believe “that this can happen in the town which is otherwise known for delicious mithai and ghee”. The police officer in charge of the raid thinks that the Kasganj bust is “only the tip of the iceberg”. We certainly hope so as semi-urban India finally gets its own taste of consensual fun between adults, till recently monopolised by the Beautiful People only in our fun-loving cities.
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