Meet Pushpaben, who took on Mumbai con men and became 'Daredevil Daadi'

Pushpaben Bhalla, known as Daredevil Dadar Daadi’ was on her way for to a temple for her daily prayers recently, when a con man stopped her pretending to be a cop. The 81-year-old woman thrashed him with his walking stick, and became a role model for courage in times of danger. The man who had approached Pushpaben told her that the area had a lot of thieves and asked her to keep all her gold jewelry in the bag for safekeeping with him. [caption id=“attachment_2780222” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pushpaben Bhalla. Image courtesy: Privthi Buddhavarapu[/caption] Even though Pushpaben’s body is frail and old, her mind is still sharp as a blade. She knew something was wrong and that the man was a crook and not a cop. She said " I doubted his intentions from the very beginning. I asked him to leave me alone. I don’t need any protection and I can take care of myself." The con man became more agitated and tried forcing her to make her obey. “He was trying again and again, but I was very adamant and refused to obey his orders. He tried to grab my hand and that’s when I hit him three or four times with my walking stick” she said. The nearby vegetable vendor heard the commotion and rushed to the scene. Seeing that people were gathering around to intervene, the con man fled. The vegetable vendor chased him down and brought him back. By that time, one of the onlookers had already called the police. The police told Pushpaben that she was very brave. “Usually, such people do not get caught. But thanks to Pushpaben, we easily arrested the man.” said one official. When asked if she was fearful of stepping out after the incident, she said “I am not scared at all. If this happens again, I shall do the same thing and trash the crooks with my stick.” She added " Today’s women need to be brave and strong, they need not be afraid of such crooks."