Diary of a drug lord

It is sometime in September A 19yearold bespectacled AQ wakes up on a single mattressmdashthe only furniture in a room he doesnrsquot recognise His clothes are changed he doesnrsquot know what time it is or where he is The only ventilation is through a narrow slit that functions as a window He breaks down Then he gets hysterical and bangs on the door After about half an hour the door opens The guard calmly informs him that he is in rehab and to not act upldquoThey clap thrice If you donrsquot wake up they hit yourdquo says AQ whose first brush with drugs came in Class 11 when a friend offered him hash ldquoIt was just what you didrdquo he says with a shrug Everyone around him was using Within a short time as he got addicted his weight dropped from 75 kg to 55 kgSoon he was selling to support his addiction To friends classmates and their friends It was good money and fast Besides it made him coolSlowly his network grew and so did businessWhat had started off with buying 60rupee weed packets from Bandra talao and reselling them for Rs 200250 each turned into selling OGs Original Gangster a potent strain of marijuana Ecstasy LSD shrooms mushrooms Within three years he peddled to a major chunk of Bandra and also to Lonavala Nashik and MalegaonThe heady years were marked by numerous runins with the police a falling out at home a suicide attempt and a halfmurder caseThe first time he got caught AQ was in Kandivli He was smoking up with his ex when a policeman caught them A search uncovered eight acid papers on AQrsquos person The cop let the girl go and took AQ with him When a traffic light brought them to a halt near Thakur college AQ jumped off the bike and bounded off Even as the policeman shouted ldquoChor Chorrdquo AQ managed to hail a cab from Borivili He got home and went to sleep After that the police didnrsquot scare him as muchldquoWithout them none of this would be possiblerdquo he says ldquoThey are all involved too Besides I was a minor so they couldnrsquot really do anythingrdquo Money he says can get you out of anythingThere were only two runins with the police that left him rattled The first was during a WhatsApp bust as they looked into actor Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos suicide and the alleged drug angle While he wasnrsquot involved he knew those who wereBusiness scaled back as everyone was forced under groundBut that wasnrsquot the only reason he thought about a new kind of life ldquoOur school allowed us to watch only two movies one was MS Dhoni The Untold Story We grew up watching Sushantrdquo he says still a bit affected The second time was when a gang war broke out in Bandra ldquoWe were leaving when I realised Irsquod dropped my specs So we went backrdquo says AQ The rival gang was still at the location and amidst some confusion he hit a man pointing at him Later he found that was a detective in plain clothesAs he sat in the back of the police van his sole thought was of relief that he was the only one arrested and not his friends However just as they were about to leave his gang climbed in Even more people showed up at the police station later After some back and forth they were made to pay a fine and let off That night was the first time he tried to kill himselfPolice are not the only ones he had to watch out for Although there does exist a certain camaraderie among dealers there is always a risk of being double crossed ldquoStocks get stolen a lotrdquo AQ says ldquoBut what are you going to do Go to the copsrdquoHe had a runin with a Nashikbased gangster who was a major buyer ldquoI used to source 100 to 200 gm of Methamphetamine for him at about Rs 900 per gram and he would sell it for Rs 2000 per gramrdquo he says ldquoThings went south when during one drop he kidnapped AQrsquos then girlfriend He wanted to get the stash for free and was trying to extort more ldquoThere was nothing I could dordquo he says helplessly ldquohe was always surrounded by people with guns They tortured her a bit but she was smart and tipped off the policerdquo They found her after a whole day and night The gangster was charged with illegal possession of firearms while the woman was set freeFor the good part of two years AQ and his girlfriend worked together She would get him out of scraps with the police and help him make contacts At his peak he made R30 to 35k a week with most of his clients being college studentsAfter they broke up he faced his first setback His best friend too had left the country He was operating all aloneldquoI was in a very bad spot mentallyrdquo he says ldquoProbably the worst I had ever been I couldnrsquot get out of bedrdquo Business was low until he decided to put all his energy into it Slowly he scaled backmdashmade more connections saved more money Soon he hit a new peak but his mental health hit another slippery slopeldquoI was very frustrated at the time and lashed out at homerdquo he says He decided to step away and go to rehab He entrusted his entire stock to his 18yearold brother who with some help from friends kept the chain goingFor the next twoandahalf months AQ had no contact with the outside world ldquoIt was worse than jailrdquo he recalls ldquoWe were given two meals a day and five beedis and medicated twice We never found out what drugs they injected into us they could have just been sleeping pills If anyone tried to escape they were tied to a wheelchair for 13 days And the authorities made us hit the inmates who tried to run away so that the rehab centre could not be accused of mistreatment If we didnrsquot hit the other inmates theyrsquod hit usrdquoWhen his mother and brother came to see him he begged them to get him out They obliged and he decided he would never go back to that life He was doneBut a few days later he met a friend and they smoked up The circle was reignitedWhat does the future hold ldquoMore hustle getting my investment back Thatrsquos why Irsquove taken up a jobrdquo says AQ ldquoBut I donrsquot like it I donrsquot want to be trapped in the matrix doing a 9to5 and earning only Rs 35000 per monthrdquoHis goal he says is to be big Like his inspiration The Wolf of Wall Street