It seemed just like another of those infuriating forwards that 'friends' flood your inbox with. The subject line was: a woman's fight against sex slavery. Another of those NGOs looking for contributions, I thought as I was about to hit delete, when the mail popped open and a sentence caught my eye. "...a man who put chili powder in the vagina of one girl..."

I opened the email and it led to a site that hosted popular talks. I was still searching for the line that had caught my eye, when the gritty voice of a woman got to me.

The video was that of a small woman dressed in an unshapely red salwar-kurta on a stage decorated more like an exotic Gujarati haveli.

She was addressing a disciplined gathering with a spattering of blonde and silver heads.