By the way….

All about mobbing Rahul Dravid
Autograph hunters thronged the Nirulas outlet at Destination Point, waiting for Rahul Dravid. He came, he smiled, signed autographs, got yelled at and went back. But by the end of the visit, everyone was happy. It all started with the organisers sitting Dravid in a corner and asking contest winners to “come one by one” and get their pictures clicked with him. It didn’t work and Dravid was mobbed. Then two teenagers pestered him to autograph their hands. He kept saying no, they kept coming back. If that wasn’t enough, one parent yelled at Dravid, accusing him of behaving “like the President of India”. All the hoo-haa because this gentleman’s children could not make their way through the crowd and get the autograph. A dazed Dravid had no choice but to go to their table and make small talk.

Freedom tour
Travelling 11,236 km and covering 19 states in a Maruti 800, three youths from Delhi paid tribute to India’s freedom fighters. Sanjay Grover, Himanshu Kant and Chittesh Gupta all young executives working in the Capital began their `Freedom India Tour’ on February 22 from India Gate and finished on March 25. “All over the country the youth were really happy to see our efforts and many identified corruption as the bane of India,” said Sanjay, the team leader. “We had varied experiences both good and bad”. In Andhra Pradesh police wouldn’t let us leave without a bribe — in Chennai 55-year-old Lakhpal Chugani welcomed us with open arms and he even gave us tickets to watch the India Australia test match,” he added. They went to the Wagah border manned by Indian soldiers and Pakistani rangers. Inspired by striking similarities between people separated by the border, the three youths now plan a `friendship tour’ to Pakistan and also a `world peace tour’. Staying in Youth Hostels and YMCAs and driving acrossIndia, their journey was to keep alive the spirit of our freedom.

A cry for help
An assignment in the walled city took me to the red light area of the Capital. I was passing through G.B. road in a rickshaw which moved slowly. There were many women standing in their balconies haggling with men on the road below. Watching the chaos, was a little girl barely in her teens.

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Dressed in a frock, she was looking out of a window. The only thing that looked odd on her little face was the bright red lipstick applied generously on her lips. My rickshaw had moved forward by then. I looked back at her and she had seen me looking at her. In a sudden movement, she wiped the red colour off her lips. Why? Was it a cry for help?

The anatomy of right and wrong
Those who take the Hippocrates Oath are a purposeful lot — as far as anatomical studies are concerned — unlike others, including policemen. It was, therefore, not surprising when, last week, I repeatedly overheard several ambitious policemen shamelessly punching femininity because a former Miss Bombay was arrested on a charge of prostitution. These men sounded inhuman as they went on to comment on the girl’s anatomy after `studying’ her photographs, which were taken outside a city court.

Several journalists, who were on hand when the men in khaki cited their `observations’, added more spice. A gentleman, of course, would have found nothing provoking in the photographs or to insult women. The much-maligned former Miss Bombay had covered her face, and was attired like any other girl of her age. There are not many gentlemen left these days even among the police and the media.
Contributions from Anuradha Nagaraj, Biju B Cyriac, Smeeta Mishra Pandey and Joy Purkayastha