Guess what's common between India's poorest and America's hippest?
Bidis.
They might be the poor man's smoke in India, but on American soil, like most things Indian, bidis are exotica. These hand-rolled, unfiltered, cheap alternatives to cigarettes are a rage among American teenagers.
Marketing gimmick
The only difference, in America they are laced with sweet flavours, like vanilla, licorice, strawberry, chocolate, mango, or cherry. A clever marketing gimmick to mask the poor quality of the tobacco, and make the unfiltered Indian pungency more palatable.
Bidis look suspiciously like marijuana joints, and come wrapped in colourful, cone-shaped packages adorned with Hindu gods and symbols.
Bidi's exotic appeal
That's part of the exotic appeal for many US teens. But the flavours, which never caught on in India, are the main attraction for Americans.Nash Cook was 17 and stoned when he first tried a strawberry bidi at an Ozzy Osbourne concert.
The bidi, Cook says, had a dizzying impact on his senses. He has tried different flavours and brands ever since.
{{/usCountry}}The bidi, Cook says, had a dizzying impact on his senses. He has tried different flavours and brands ever since.
{{/usCountry}}Popular among hippies and teens
According to Cook, "Goth kids who wear a lot of black, do a lot of a terrible music, and talk about how terrible life is, smoke bidis." Bidis are also very popular among hippie crowds, 'curbies' and youth who enjoy alternative or trance music.
Women and effeminate men love bidis too because of the delicate way they dangle between tattooed fingers and pierced lips.
Mindy Lee started smoking bidis when she was 16. They invariably gave her a headache, but she got hooked because her girlfriends thought they were cool and trendy.
"If you are 18, have a head on your shoulders and party, you know about bidis," Lee says. For her bidis are the closest legal things to smoking weed.
Adults like it too
However, teenagers are not the only ones hooked to these leafy rolls of Indian tobacco. Some adults are intrigued too. Douglas McDaniel, a Sedona-based writer with 10 books to his credit, was in his mid-thirties when he started smoking bidis. "I was having a late childhood," he says.
Bidi was a habit he picked up after his divorce. And he kept on with it because it was something he could do in bars.