Lovelorn youth courts Gandhigiri

HE COULD have been our own ?Veeru? who shouted ?sooocccide? from the overhead water tank in the 70s blockbuster ?Sholay? to win over Basanti?s mausi ? he could even have been the home-grown version of Munnabhai, who with his famed Gandhigiri of saying things ?vinamrata se? won over his girlfriend and also many an enemy in ?Lage Raho Munnabhai.?

HE COULD have been our own ‘Veeru’ who shouted ‘sooocccide’ from the overhead water tank in the 70s blockbuster ‘Sholay’ to win over Basanti’s mausi … he could even have been the home-grown version of Munnabhai, who with his famed Gandhigiri of saying things ‘vinamrata se’ won over his girlfriend and also many an enemy in ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai.’

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But 31-year-old Vikram Singh Tomar hit upon another way to win over his own family members and also that of the family of the girl he wants to marry. Dejected after the girl said no bowing to family pressure, Tomar on Tuesday began an indefinite hunger strike to convince the girl—who happens to be from a lower caste than his — and both the families.

Amid routine paraphernalia like pandal, poster of Gandhiji and a banner announcing ‘Prem hi Ishwar hai’, apart from distributing write-up explaining his proposition, Tomar began the ‘satyagraha’ at 12 noon soon after which people in the area started coming to visit him at the venue at Nandanagar area.

The young man from Vidisha, who has been staying here since his student days, has a job in marketing research with a private firm. The girl in question stays in the nearby area and had earlier reciprocated to his love. But when the two families said no objecting to the caste difference, she retraced her steps.

“I will continue the silent protest till my last breath,” he said proclaiming his love for the girl, not from the rooftop, but from his ‘satyagraha’ pandal.