I go in to the reporting room, tell them what I have come for. The sub-inspector offers me a seat then tells me that Budh Singh has been arrested for ‘eve-teasing’. I protest. I tell him that Budh Singh is a man of impeccable character, has never shown any interest in women and so on. But at times something happens to him. I point to my head.

The sub-inspector nods and tells me of Budh’s eve-teasing. He was apparently walking along the corridors of Connaught Circus mumbling to himself (‘Prayer.’ I interject, ‘he prays all the time’) when he suddenly grabbed a young woman’s bosom, pressed it and said bhawn, bhawn. Before she could recover from the shock, he grabbed the other bosom and likewise pressed it with a bhawn, bhawn. ‘Ah yes, poor man! You know he was once a truck-driver in the army; he must have thought they were bulb horns,’ I explain. The sub-inspector is more understanding than the women in Connaught Circus. Apparently Budh Singh pressed many other female bulb horns. There was a hue and cry and some students beat him up. That wasn’t the end. There was a woman banana-seller with her basket full of bananas sitting on the pavement. Budh Singh examined them and asked the price. He thought they were overpriced and offered to sell his own at a much cheaper rate. And showed it to the banana-seller. The lady did not appreciate the gesture and told Budh Singh to offer it to his mother. What could Budh Singh do? He grabbed the banana-seller’s bosoms with both his hands and said bhawn, bhawn. Then the police got him. ‘He must have been thinking of his trucking days.’ I explain again. ‘It comes over him once in a while.’ The sub-inspector is most kind. They’ve already beaten Budh Singh. ‘That’s enough punishment for pressing four bosoms and showing his penis. He did not fuck anyone’s mother, did he?’ he says. ‘But don’t let him do it again.’

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