Bindi for Lindsay, didi for little girl
- Trafficking victim brings tears to eyes of Hollywood actress
Calcutta, Dec. 11: Lindsay Lohan left wearing a bindi — and almost with a child draped around her.
The Hollywood actress had found both on the premises of the Narendrapur home of the NGO Sanlaap, which houses young women and girls who were victims of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Lindsay had arrived three hours late — “an attack of migraine” — but seemed to have found what she was seeking on her clandestine India trip: an issue serious enough.
If she had saved “over 40 children in Delhi”, as she had tweeted on Wednesday on reaching the capital, where she only put in “one hour’s work” as someone associated with her trip claimed, in Calcutta she must have saved many, many more.
For she stayed on for more than three hours and mingled with several of the almost 150 inmates of the house. But it was 11-year-old “Gilori” who made Lindsay melt, not the least with her call “didi”.
Dressed in a black sleeveless top, black tights and knee-length black boots, with long sand-blonde hair streaked with green at the crown, the 23-year-old Lindsay looked pretty, petite and make-up free, except for the eyes, and in no way the Hollywood goddess she is.
She was accompanied by a four-member BBC crew, who were filming her for a documentary on human trafficking in which she will be the presenter. A male friend who wore many bracelets was with her.
In Calcutta, the Mean Girls star, known for her wild partying, may also have found the “life-changing” moment she had come looking for in India.
Even as her white Innova rolled into the home past its tall gates, Lindsay refused to face anyone, sitting almost crouched inside her vehicle till the area was declared camera-free. Outside, the throng of photographers and reporters was going wild. There was a photographer from a British newspaper as well.
Lindsay watched a dance performance by the young inmates and moved on to an enclosure to talk to some of them.
One of them was Gilori, whose name was Dulari once but no one could recall how it had changed in the few months she has been staying at the home. She is small for her age and her head is shaved, but her radiant smile makes up for everything.
As the BBC crew hovered over her, Gilori began to tell her story, with an activist from the NGO as the translator. Gilori and her brother were beggar children. They lived with their elder brother and his wife near Kharagpur. The elder brother and his wife made them beg on trains plying between Kharagpur and Howrah.
On one such stint, police picked them up and Gilori was brought to the Sanlaap home. The brother and his wife have come to visit Gilori but she doesn’t want to meet them.
Lindsay picked Gilori up and sat her on her lap. “I don’t want to go back home again,” Gilori said. Where and how do such children live, asked Lindsay, tears forming in her eyes.
When Gilori said her sister-in-law beat her and she used to return home with the money earned at night by train, Lindsay broke into sobs, which smudged her eye make-up.
She put her arms around Gilori. The little girl kept smiling. She said she didn’t want to leave the Narendrapur home. “I don’t want to go back home. I want to go with you,” she said.
Lindsay spoke to three young women who had been trafficked to brothels in Calcutta and Pune. She said she was moved by their stories, the filming of which would help other vulnerable women. Lindsay promised to send gifts for all of them.
But Gilori wouldn’t let her go. She jumped back onto Lindsay’s lap and hugged her and kissed her. Picking her up again, Lindsay wanted to wear a bindi. Someone put one on her forehead.
Then it was time for her to go. Would Gilori go with her? The little girl stared at the actress. No, of course, but Lindsay “didi” promised to keep in touch with her.
“Now she will think of nothing but her for the next seven days,” said an inmate as the car left with Lindsay.
As for Lindsay, about half an hour past the visit, she tweeted: “The most amazing time of my life.”
(You wouldn't have any 'career' at all with it, Sweetie...)
