Lessons for wannabe pickpockets

Lessons for wannabe pickpockets
J DEY

February 3: If Oliver Twist was lost in Mumbai, chances are he would find his way to Kajutekdi, downtown Bhandup, plugging into pick-pocketing mantras touted by a desi Fagin. At the city's only school for pick-pockets, trainees are broken into the grueling rigmarole of having quicksilver fingers and escaping the fury of a mob when cornered.

Most trainees are members of the makadwalla tribe while others hail from Sholapur. Among the students honing their pickpocketing skills are those from the Haseena gang and Ali's gang from Kurla (E). Their classes unfold at the area around the Mangatram Petrol Pump where a cluster of 70-odd hutments form part of the centre. Identified as Nagesh, the key trainer could charge anything from Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 for the arduous training sessions. Spending a large sum on the tribal deity after a `big killing' is part of the understanding.

Among the often brutal lessons learnt over three weeks, a student learns how to deflect the intensity of a beating from an enraged crowd by shoving two fingers up his nose to puncture the veins there under cover of his palms. Thus, while a mob kicks and curses the perpetrator, he falls dramatically to the road, bleeding from the mouth where he has funneled the blood. Unsure, his attackers pause and in the suspended moment, he's darted off and melted into the thick crowds that cover the city.

Trainees are taught to wield a razor blade with all the skill of a practised fencer - the cut so fine that during practice sessions the sand from a gunny bag should not dribble out onto the floor. The secret to nimble, flexible fingers is that ring and indes finger bones are broken to scurry into pockets unnoticed. The are even armed with the wisdom of slashing their own face and forearms with blades if they are nabbed while picking a pocket. The ploy works as the police are unwilling to take on the task of sending them for medical treatment as prescribed under the detention acts. ``We often return with bruised bodies after training. Scars appear even before we have picked our first pocket,'' remarks a former trainee.

Other lessons include blocking off a victim's arm and vision before the operation is carried out, sources informed. Other than this, stealing fowl is also written into the curriculum, sources inform. `` A handful is rice is kept in the trainee's mouth for several hours to make is poisonous. This is often fed to foul before covering it with a wet cloth. The bird is too dazed to squack,'' sources reveal.The school and the training imparted there assumes significance in light of the fact that some pickpockets are promoted to robbers before they graduate to shooters in one of the underworld outfits in the city.