Crowded out

It is well known that what Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad likes best is to be in the middle of his noisy party supporters and the attendant slogan-shouting brigade. But he was forced to avoid them last week after being discharged from a Mumbai hospital following heart surgery. Although his supporters had gathered at the hospital for a darshan of their leader to wish him an early recovery, Lalu's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi made sure her husband made it to the car without being mobbed. For a change, the maverick politician also heeded his wife and doctor's instructions and did not engage with the crowd.