Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Role Reversal??

Here's an entertaining story of role reversal.

Indian cricketing hero Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been provided an all-female body guard - to protect him from his horde of female fans!

Now please, I am not making light of the women providing this valuable service, but it does make a change from the typical "male" bodyguard type scenarios that we are all familiar with.

From The Times of India:
"India's ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is now well and truly in the big league. For, no longer is the "privilege" of being watched over by female guards the preserve of the odd royalty and, even more spectacularly, the Libyan strongman, Col Muammar Gaddafi. Mahi, routinely mobbed by a legion of admirers, now has a posse of women cops to protect him in Ranchi.

Dhoni, who has a particularly hysterical female following, now runs the risk of becoming the darling of women constables deployed to escort him and shoo away girls trying to hug and fall over him.

For constables of the Jharkhand Armed Police, lady luck couldn't have flashed a more winsome smile. Fresh from training, they were delighted to learn that their first assignment was to escort Dhoni wherever he went. Blushing and giggling, they were a welcome departure from the usual grim-faced constables purveying Dhoni's Mecon colony bungalow."


From the New Zealand Herald:
"The decision to give Dhoni, India's limited-overs cricket captain, the new security detail comes after two recent incidents in which female fans tried to throw themselves on the heartthrob player, Ranchi police chief M S Bhatia said. Bhatia said the female police had been given special training to protect Dhoni from unwanted advances. He has already been given "Z-class" security - the highest level - from the state, usually reserved for the prime minister and other senior political figures."


From BBC News:
" "Dhoni has a Z-plus security cover [the highest level provided by the state]. Yet it is difficult to keep the female fans away," senior police officer Manvinder Singh Bhatia told the BBC. "So we decided to deploy women commandos for his security as they can do the job with ease," he said. Another police officer said, "The next three weeks that he is here we will ensure that he does not have to face any kind of embarrassment like the one in Calcutta."

For the 15-odd women commandos from the Jharkhand Armed Police constabulary who have been entrusted with the task of keeping Dhoni's boisterous female fans away, this is an unusual posting. Trained rigorously in warfare and ambush techniques, they say they never thought they would be deployed to keep an eye on the state's most eligible and sought-after bachelor. "



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