Kirtesh Kavi holds up an iPhone before me. He scrolls through his contacts, clicks on a particular name and proceeds to demonstrate how a video call is made.
The 3G-enabled handset is an extension of Kavi’s personality — sophisticated, suave and with-it — and will be his weapon of choice later in the evening.
Kirtesh Kavi runs Cosmopolitan Security and detective services and like all his peers in Mumbai and prominent cities in Gujarat, Kavi is a busy man this Navratri.
Like each year, the 37-year-old sleuth and his team will be shadowing young Navratri revellers at the behest of their parents.
The trend of concerned parents wanting to know what their young wards are up to during the nine-night festival is an old one.
Unlike most Indian festivals, which are a daytime affair, Navratri celebrations begin way after sundown. During simpler times when Mumbai used to Bombay and a far safer place, these celebrations would go late into the night.
The sheer nature of the festival — hours of dancing to fast music — also makes it more a festival of the young than of the old.
So while on a regular night a traditional family (Gujarati or otherwise) wouldn’t dream of letting their daughter go out clubbing, these nine nights offer the young one an opportunity to taste freedom.
However, over the years as parents have grown smarter and more suspicious they tend to hire the services of detectives such as Kavi and his colleagues.
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These detectives trail them night after night and gather photo and video evidence to prove (or disprove) the parents’ suspicions.
This year things have gone to a completely different level. Those parents who are too impatient to wait for a report the following morning can, thanks to 3G some innovative investigators such as the man holding up the iPhone before me, watch what their children are up to in real time!
To be able to do this they are even willing to shell out an extra Rs 20-40k and purchase an iPhone or an Android-based smartphone just so they can do it.
