Picture this: You are on your way home after a frustrating day at work. Suddenly, a stranger appears and offers you a free hug.

The scene may seem straight out of Sanjay Dutt’s hit flick Munnabhai MBBS. But that is exactly the mission a few teenagers from city colleges are on: “to brighten up people’s life by offering a jadoo ki jhappi”, absolutely free and with no strings attached!

For the past two weeks, 18-year-old Vinit Mehta from Bandra’s St Andrews College, and his handful of friends have taken upon themselves the responsibility to promote the international Free Hugs campaign in Mumbai. Holding up hand-painted ‘Free Hugs’ placards, they stroll around busy streets during evening rush hours, hugging everyone in sight — from ageing taxi drivers to grocery-shopping homemakers and office goers.

“It all started a few weeks ago when I saw a video of Juan Mann of Sydney, Australia,” says Vinit. “Touched by the extent of social disconnectivity in urban cities, Mann began hugging strangers in public places. He started the movement in June 2004 and soon it became a hit. After all, everybody needs a hug once in a while,” he smiles.

Vinit, like Mann, believes that a random act of kindness can change someone’s world.

According to the youngsters, in just two weeks, their campaign has shown great promise of becoming a movement. Says Aditi Banerjee, Vinit’s college friend and an active participant in the campaign: “We started out on Colaba Causeway one Saturday evening, just for larks. At first there was a lot of skepticism, people wondered what we are up to and frowned at us. But as we kept going, they warmed up. Soon they were coming up to us for a hug.”

The youngsters’ favourite spot remains Marine Drive, where evening walkers as well as people leaving offices come in hordes. “Every time we go to Marine Drive, we hug at least 600 people at a stretch,” Vinit explains.

Today, the campaign that began as a two-volunteers team has at least 20 guest volunteers. “We don’t want the Free Hug campaign to become an NGO or a group, we want it to enjoy that sense of freedom. Besides, we ourselves are students who need to take breaks from the campaign every now and then. However, we love guest volunteers who join us on the streets, and go around with us spreading the goodwill,” Vinit says. Every time they take the campaign, at least two guests join them. “Foreigners are especially very thrilled by the idea. Once a Finnish girl joined us for over two hours and had great fun,” he says. The team even keeps spare placards for guest members.

Amrita, one such guest, who joined them at Marine Drive smiles, “I was sitting at the sea front watching them, and was so touched by their gesture that I just wanted to be a part of it.” Now Amrita has become a regular member of the team.

To date, the campaign has gone to Colaba Causeway, Infiniti Mall in Andheri, Marine Drive and Inorbit Mall Malad. However, they usually don’t focus on just one place but keep moving from one area to another. “By now, we have lost the count of people we have hugged,” Aditi laughs, “each one of us probably hugs at least 200 people within an hour,” she enumerates. To Aditi, a hug could be the answer to all the world’s problems: “In a world torn by differences of opinion, there’s a simple way to hug someone and make a difference.”  

According to her, the best response came from a middle aged lady who was on her routine evening walk. :”She told me that after she hugged us, she went home and told her in-laws about it. And then, they all hugged each other. I really appreciated that response. The world would be a better place, if our thought went around and everyone just hugged each other.”

Origin of Free Hugs
Free hugs is a real life story of Australian Juan Mann, who after a long stint in London returned home only to find that there was no one in Sydney to welcome him back. With no place to call home, he found himself as a tourist in his hometown.