When rich kids chill out, they show off guns

For the clutch of just-out-of-teens present, they wave away the adult’s misplaced’ concern but admit it limits their fun and games. “We are not into this macho b******t, but it is a pain that I always have to attend a party with a back-up,” says the 20-year-old, slick-haired, dude. “We are always in a group so that nobody messes with us even if we don’t have guns.” According to him, December to February is the “hottest party scene” with most kids who are abroad fly down for their winter vacation, summer is spent at poolside parties, “when it is too hot to be aggro,” he says. Most fights are provoked on flimsy grounds free-flying insults, an innocent stare, a push or shove by swaggering drunks, but it does get dangerous when a girlfriend is involved.

“When we walk in and see a particular group,” says a pretty young thing waving her caramel mane, “there is an unspoken code where we avoid that corner and refuse to make any eye contact with them. We pretend they are invisible”.

The Delhi set that carry guns are sons of industrialists, rich’ bureaucrats, MPs, NRIs and the like. “Look, most of these Delhi yuppies who come back from universities abroad imitate the Miami squad where cocaine, slick suits and smooth guns are the name of the game,” says a weathered 25-year-old Wall Street banker. “These are guys who return to Delhi to take over their father’s business and believe a pistol in their briefcase is the ultimate symbol of style.” For the local crowd, security guards who form a ring around the brat pack are often called to settle matters, and they willingly oblige their little masters.

Recent skirmishes have included a scrap at a car park in Chattarpur when the “offended” teenager ran to his car and pulled out a Colt and forced his victim to apologise for no fault of his, even while a patrol jeep stood around lazily a couple of metres away, a near-miss in a maze of bedrooms in a mansion in the city when a youngman accidentally stumbled on a copulating couple, the matter was settled only after the host intervened and bellowed he was a friend.

The cutiepie gang, however, is least intimidated by the sight of a gun, in fact, they have quite often succeeded in silencing the gun and its owner to mute submission with a wave of Cartier-crusted wrist. “Since they are friends, we just ask them to shut up and behave,” says a giddily confident teen-queen. While they may not posses a gun, some have acquired a zap,’ a key-chain with a little red button, which sends electric shocks enough to stun a guy momentarily. Girl brawls are equally crunching but are at a more feline level, scratching and pulling hair, sometimes even ramming their car at full throttle into the offending girl’s vehicle.

Mercifully, the city is yet to witness a full gun battle, though there have been several shootouts at nightclubs in and around the city. But parents dread the time when almost every kid has access to a weapon. “I learnt from my son that buying a gun is one of the easiest things to do and, it is also cheaper than a night out in a city discotheque. I hope more and more parents talk to their kids and teach them the right values rather than spoil them and be sorry later,” says a distressed mother.