Footprints

 

The only way a civil servant thinks he exists or has ever existed is to find his name on something called a Succession Board. Most government offices have this board where the serial numbers, names of the officers and the dates they occupied the hallowed chair are written and prominently displayed, usually behind the chair. Some of these boards go back to ancient times, much before India’s independence also. 

Given this, despite putting in 33 long years in the Indian Police Service, I wonder whether I have ever existed because my name doesn’t figure in (m)any board/s. 

The problem started with my probation/training days itself. Our outdoor in-charge used to be very innovative and introduced two large brass plaques on the training ground at the National Police Academy (NPA) recording the names of all the IPS officers who had passed out from the portals of NPA. After passing out, for some reason, the Academy recommended that I should be removed from service and pursued it vigorously. They succeeded in ensuring that orders terminating my services were issued. Apparently, there were jubilant celebrations in the Academy when news of this reached there and, in the middle of it, someone decided to remove my name from the brass plaque. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the honourable President of India who is never pleased was pleased to cancel the termination order so I survived. Later, when I visited the Academy, I checked to see whether my name had been put back in. It was. While returning from the parade ground to my room, I ran into the officer/ faculty who had vigorously campaigned for my removal. He enquired, “Aur, kya ho raha hai?” I replied, “Woh sab nahi ho raha hai,” and moved on. I wonder whether the brass plaque and my name are still there. 

In the cadre, my first posting was as Sub Divisional Police Officer in Alipurduar. The post was very old and the succession board in that office contained the names of many celebrated officers dating back to really ancient times. It was a matter of pride to see my name alongside theirs. Unfortunately, the sub division has now been converted into a district so there is a Superintendent of Police there and the post and the board have ceased to exist. 

On promotion, I joined as a zonal Additional SP in South 24 Parganas district. Unfortunately for me, that zone has now been subdivided into three full-fledged police districts so, again, the old board is gone. 

My next assignment was a United Nations deployment in Mozambique. In those deployments, there is no system of succession boards. In any case, once the mission winds up, hardly any trace of it survives. Sometimes, the country also doesn’t survive, let alone a succession board. 

After I came back, I was posted for a few months as Additional SP in North 24 Parganas district. That office has now got shifted and succession board, if any, of the post also must have been subsumed in an unmarked grave of the interminable march of time. 

On promotion, I was posted as SP, Calcutta airport. Those were pre-Kandahar hijacking days and airport security was manned by local Police of the state where any airport was situated. After the Kandahar hijacking, the government decided that the airport security would be handed over to a Central force and CISF was designated to take over the security at the airports in a phased manner. Accordingly, the security of Calcutta airport is now under the charge of an officer of CISF designated as CASO (Chief Airport Security officer). The earlier post and succession board are long gone. 

The next post, DC, Enforcement Branch, Calcutta Police was already in decline when I joined because the control orders were being cancelled one by one. It has now been fairly reduced to a long-deceased letter box and has been relocated. I have no idea if a succession board exists when the post itself faces extinction. 

North Dinajpur, the district where I was SP was carved out of another district called West Dinajpur which might have been carved out of an undivided Dinajpur during British times – the East Dianjpur part became part of East Bengal/ Bangladesh. When this happens, that succession board of the original district disappears, to be replaced by succession boards of the new units, starting with when the unit was formed. Unfortunately, North Dinajpur district has now been splintered into two districts. 

I went on Central deputation as a Commandant. This organisation was undergoing a transformation at that point of time, to becoming a border guarding force. The unit I was heading was in the hinterland and was now merged with other units and the combined unit was located at the border. With this went any hope of mine to have some kind of existence on a succession board. Later, on promotion in that organisation, I held a combination of assignments simultaneously and these combinations were changing frequently so the question of any succession board didn’t arise. 

My second central deputation was with Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and since the demands on the organisation were far greater than its capabilities, I devoted my entire energy into a massive reorganisation. All the designations also underwent a transformation. Thus the post of Commissioner became Director General. My name figured in the posts of Commissioner and Joint Commissioner but it’s unlikely that those boards exist any more. In that sense, I dug my own grave by organising the overhaul of BCAS.

My last assignment in the service was so insignificant that there was no succession board. I tried to find the dates my predecessors had occupied the post  so that I could create a succession board but even that record didn’t exist. Thus, I faded gently into that post-retirement good night, unseen, unheard, unrecorded for posterity. 

In my quest for some kind of footprint on the sands of time, I compiled a selection of these blogs into a book hoping that there would be at least some traces of my existence. Unfortunately, just a few days back, my publishers informed that they are winding up their Indian operations and after this month, my book will stop being listed in Amazon, etc., unless I get it reprinted by some other publishers. 

Leads me to think, do I exist? Have I ever existed? I seek solace in Einstein’s quote about Mahatma Gandhi:

But then, apparently, no one knew Gandhi until a film was made on him. I wonder whether anyone ever would make a film on me.

OMG, What have they done!

 

In 2002, when I visited the National Police Academy (NPA) at Hyderabad to attend a seminar on National Security, we were taken to see the sound and light show at Golconda fort. This was started in 1993, much after we had passed out from NPA. It was the first sound and light show I’d ever seen. I was stunned! 

It started with a mesmerising ghazal by Jagjit Singh: 

एक गुलशन था जलवानुमां इस जगह,

रंग-ओ-बू जिसकी दुनिया में मशहूर थी,

बेग़मों की हँसी गूँजती थी यहीं,

शाह की शानोशौकत में भरपूर थी … 

There was a beauty of splendour here

Its fame enthralled many all over the world

The place used to echo with the laughter of queens and princesses

It bore witness to the kings’ pomp and pageantry … 

[Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vTT-EucsqA] 

Then, Amitabh Bachchan’s voice took over, “Come, friends, come this way please …” 

The show was for one hour. With questions and answers, Amitabh Bachchan took us through the entire history of the fort from the time Prataprudra built the fort in the 11^th Century through its development by the Kakatiyas, Bahmani Sultans, Sultan Quli and so on. The narration included reenacted conversations between certain key personae in history and with tremendous sound effects like that of horses galloping and neighing, war drums and so on and differential lighting focusing on different parts of the fort at different levels in sync with the events being described, it transported us to the bygone eras which we felt we were ourselves inhabiting during that hour. The coloured lighting focused in turns on Diwan-e-khas, Rani Mahal, Sultan’s chambers and while being narrated, a lit-up fountain suddenly sprang to life. So did a beam highlighting the Koh-i-Noor diamond which is supposed to have either originated in the Golconda mines or adorned the Golconda vaults initially. 

When the one and a half month siege of the fort by Aurangzeb was depicted we felt we were inside the fort with the vast Mughal army barracked outside. When the negotiation between the queen and Aurangzeb happened and Aurangzeb extracted a heavy price for lifting the siege, we were flies on the wall watching and listening to the exchanges. 

The romance between Sultan Qutb Shah and Bhagmati and the risks the former took to meet her, defying royal edict against it, was poignantly portrayed with great sound effects and exchanges. 

Golconda fort has a unique architecture and built on several tiers/ levels. This made for riveting details in the narration. It has a seven kilometer surrounding wall, four drawbridges, eight gates and 87 bastions. The fort has an amazing acoustic system which is a technical and engineering marvel. It was designed in such a way that a clap at the entrance is transmitted a kilometer away to the main fort three levels up but could not be heard a meter away. This was for announcing arrivals and warning against attacks. The gates were designed in such a way with narrow entrances and giant iron spikes that the elephants couldn’t charge and bring them down. That is why Aurangzeb resorted to sorrrounding the fort for one and half months in the first instance and later, for eight months. 

When the show ended after an hour, each one in the packed audience burst into spontaneous applause. 

Later I saw the sound and light shows at the cellular jail in Port Blair and Lal Qila in Delhi but those were just not a patch on the one at Golconda fort. Whenever anyone I knew was visiting Hyderabad, I used to urge him to make it a point to catch the show at Golconda. It truly showcased the brilliant talent of India in art and music, its famed "soft" power. I wanted to see it again too. The opportunity came during a recent visit and the experience was heart-breaking. 

For reasons completely unknown, the authorities have taken something utterly brilliant and replaced it with a tedious, almost unwatchable excretion of half an hour duration. My first indication came when I saw most of the chairs empty – it used to get really crowded earlier. Gone are the music and the Jagjit Singh ghazals. Gone also is the highlighting of the fort and its different aspects. The drama is missing in the narration which is now a flat reading. Some pictures are shown on a single wall – one may as well see it on a computer screen at home. The exquisite sound effects are all gone. There is nothing in the depiction about the technical and engineering marvel that is Golconda fort. And, for some reason, Shivaji Maharaj has entered the narration. 

Not only that no one clapped at the end, people had started leaving much before the whittled-down half-an-hour tedium ended. 

I came away utterly dejected and googled to learn why. Apparently, the change was done to incorporate 3D mapping projection with high-resolution projectors, laser lights and moving heads. Why it couldn’t have been done while retaining the earlier out-of-the-world narration, music and highlighting is one question I couldn’t find an answer to. What upset me the most was that the change came about just 3-4 months back. Had I visited just a few months back, I could have re-lived that beautiful experience all over again. 

I wonder why there hasn’t been any protest against this mindless modification. There should have been. There should be. For those who might like to get somewhat reminded of the old glorious thing, here are the links to what someone has posted on YouTube in three parts. The experience of sitting at the fort and the audio quality can’t be there but one gets the idea of how much better the old version was. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” 

Part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2Lelmz3JS0 

Part 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfiSufcer3Y 

Part 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIv3ykTaRoU

[Queen Bhagmati entering the fort]

Not a drop to drink

 

“Don’t Work-From-Home, Go Home,” “India’s IT capital high and dry,” “Southern metropolis heading towards Day Zero” … are some of the headlines the media screamed about the current water crisis in Bengaluru. If reports are to be believed, people have been reduced to a bath once a week, using disposable cutlery, ordering out instead of cooking, using aerators on taps and cans for washing hands, lining up for water tankers and being fined for washing cars or sprinkling the gardens. IPL matches in the city scheduled shortly have come under uncertainty. How did a premium city come to this? 

The two primary sources of water for Bengaluru, the Cauvery river and ground water have been stretched beyond the limit. Against around 3,000 million litres required per day, the supply is around 1,500 million litres. The rapid urbanisation of the city and its surroundings meant that its lakes turned dry and toxic, gardens gave way to concrete jungles and water consumption grew by leaps and bounds. Lands reserved for green cover, wetlands, urban forests and river courses were rapidly de-notified. Its 262 lakes (around when I studied there in 1984) have come down to 81 now. 90 % of even these 81 are on the verge of extinction, as per Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. 

We shall be extremely myopic if we think this is a problem of Bengaluru alone and that too for a short while. India has been witnessing extremely rapid urbanisation. As per census data, 28.53 % of India’s population resided in urban areas in 2001. By 2017, this had grown to 34 % as per World Bank which estimates that, by 2030, 40.76 % of the country’s population will be in urban areas (400 persons/sq km). Slowly, all cities and later, all urban areas in India may attain Bengaluru’s “water-loo.” 

What’s the way out, then? Let’s take a look at Singapore. 

Compared to other colonised countries, Singapore got its independence from British rule very late, in 1965. One of the reasons was that the British didn’t think it could survive as an independent nation because it had serious inadequacy of water. It was only after a water agreement was signed with Malaysia in 1962 that an independent nation could be thought of. The Malaysian Constitution was also amended in 1965 to provide for an assured quantity of water supplied to Singapore. 

Singapore went on to become a thriving nation but at the back of the policy maker’s mind, its water conundrum has always occupied pride of place and apprehension. While grandstanding against Malaysia which was trying to negotiate a revised price and revised water treaty (“The day Malaysia stops water supply, my tanks will be on Malaysia border” ~ Lee Kuan Yew), Singapore did a few things. 

On the supply side, Singapore extended its available sources by desalination of sea water and reuse of waste water and stormwater. Wastewater discharge into streams is not permitted in 95 % of the area and in the remaining 5 %, it requires prior treatment. This is enforced strictly. The recycling of waste water has been so successful that it (called NEWater) is actually purer than tap water. However, so as not to affect sentiments, it is being used primarily for industrial purposes although part of it is blended into the domestic supply reservoirs also. Singapore identified “four taps” of its water supply, Water from local catchment areas, Imported water from Malaysia, NEWater and Desalinated water. Since one of the taps, Imports from Malaysia is uncertain, it has continuously tried to improve the other three taps, calling it the “Three-Tap-Strategy.” This was coupled with ABC – Active, Beautiful, Clean waters programme. [Acronyms have been around for a while!] 

“Whatever gets measured, gets done.” Singapore aggressively chased a metric called UfW to minimise. This is Unaccounted for Water, the difference between the quantity of water supplied to a city's network and the metered quantity of water used by the customers. It has two components -- physical losses due to leakage from pipes and administrative losses due to illegal connections and under-registration of water meters. This stands at 40 % for Delhi and 31 % for Bengaluru at present, against an internationally permissible level of 20 %. UfW in most Asian urban centres range between 40 % to 60 %. For London, it is 24 %. Singapore managed to plug almost all the leaks in the pipes and the systems and eliminated any illegal connections. It has achieved an astounding UfW below 5 %. 

However, it was on the demand side that Singapore wrought a miracle. 

Most countries charge higher for industrial and commercial use of water compared to domestic use. Singapore changed that and charged the same rate for both domestic and commercial use up to a reasonable amount of use per household (40 cubic metres per month). Beyond this, the rates go up steeply for the domestic consumption. Thus, industrial/ commercial users do not subsidise domestic users. [In India, domestic consumers use 90 % of the water but account for only 20 % of the revenues. Source: Asian Development Bank]. 

Instead of providing for lower “lifeline” tariff for poor households on humanitarian grounds, the tariff is kept the same for all but cash benefit transfer is given to the poor households. 

There are Water Conservation Tax, Water-borne fee (for treatment of effluents) and Sanitary appliance Fee. These make the water management financially self-sufficient. 

The water management staff remuneration is benchmarked on the Civil Service and corruption is met with exemplary punishment. 

The biggest enabler in Singapore has probably been taking the politicians out of the equation while setting tariffs. Politicians would necessarily have a vote-centric 5-year horizon which would keep tariffs artificially low or very sticky upwards. Let them play around with targeted subsidy through cashbacks (Direct Benefit Transfer) and let the tariff be on long-term considerations of water conservation and economising its use, and you have a winner. 

Singapore is not necessarily perfect. Although it has reduced its dependence on Malaysia for its water, even now 40 % of its water supply depends on the imports (down from 50 % earlier). However, let’s target a few things amongst what Singapore achieved more than a decade back: 100 % population having access to safe drinking water and sanitation; less than 5 % UfW; every drop of supplied water accounted for; an extraordinarily high water account/employee ratio (376); 99 % water bill collection efficiency; and a financially self-sufficient water management authority. 

The alternative is the doomsday Bengaluru forecast of “No water anywhere, let alone a drop to drink.” Replicated across the country.

Stop whining, start shining II

 

I wonder if any cop at the senior level realises how troublesome being a victim of a crime is. When I was in Sierra Leone, after the hectic elections were over (one of the rare African elections where the government changed without a bloodbath), some of us UN mentors and the Senior Police Advisor got together in our house (it was called the India House) for a celebratory do. It was a rollicking party and, after the guests left, we, the inmates, went off to sleep blissfully. One of us received a call at around 3 AM from the landlord, who stayed in an adjacent house, saying he feared there were some intruders in the house. Our friend woke up to find that most of the things in the drawing room and living room including the TV set, music system, etc. had been taken away by the robbers. He woke all of us up and we saw that there was an armed gang who had come in and some of them were standing guard with knives outside each of the bedroom in case any of us woke up or disturbed them. Some of the knives were left behind. Luckily, none of us woke up suddenly, else, there might have been bloodshed that night and I wouldn’t be around to pontificate. 

We lodged a complaint but, for a few days, every night, we used to go to bed fearful that we might be set upon during the night. It wasn’t a happy existence for those days, despite our being cops and the local cops visiting regularly and putting in an armed guard for the nights also. 

In India, just lodging a complaint is a Herculean task. A victim going to a police station is already under severe stress. Then, there is utter insensitivity at the Police station which treats him as the problem and a nuisance. The default option of the Police officer is to prove that the complaint is false. At the end of the experience, the complainant feels more like the accused than the victim. Then, there are those interminable summons to the Police station on the pretext of recording of statements, examination by supervising officers, and so on. 

If we take ourselves away from the colonial mindset and think of Policing as a service, what would we focus on? A victim of a crime is less interested in the detection than in someone promptly attending to his distress call or his complaint. Just the fact that people in uniform land up at the scene of crime and start investigation quickly reassures him and his neighbourhood. We should concentrate on that and on how to minimise the inconvenience to the victim. That would mean recording the complaint at the scene of crime and taking all other steps like recording the statements, seizures, examination of witnesses, identifications, etc. all in one go and at one place. One-stop policing, in a nutshell. 

A member in my IIMB alumni group once contacted me. He had started a high-end café and the business was picking up. There was a burglary in the café and he lodged a complaint. There was no peace for him thereafter. Every day, the Police station started summoning his key personnel so that the café came to a standstill. In his desperation, he approached the SHO for withdrawing/ closing the case but the demand for doing so was so extortionate that he was cursing his “misadventure” in lodging a police complaint in the first place. He contacted me in utter desperation and was most grateful just because I helped him in closing the case. Imagine! With this kind of extreme victimisation of the victim himself, what legitimacy can the Police have? Is there a way out? Yes, very much. All cases should be reviewed on a monthly basis and there should be no non-Special Report cases pending for more than three months. This is easy to achieve. In case a case has been closed due to lack of evidence, it can be revived later if fresh evidence is forthcoming. 

Every single day, we wake up to news that such and such person has been denied bail on flimsy grounds. Even though he was arrested on cooked-up charges. That is between the Courts and the arrested person. Police can’t so anything about it. What the Police can do is, avoid wrongful arrest. How? Penalise it. 

Unlike in the US and elsewhere, there is no penalty mandated for wrongful arrest in India and the police and the politicians have had a free pass to do a lot of reprehensible things for too long, taking advantage of this. The cop leadership can do it internally and mete out exemplary punishment. The SP or DCP knows when a wrongful arrest has happened. Instead of turning a blind eye to it or starting a Departmental Enquiry, he can arrest the offender and put him behind bars. In a Police lock-up. I did just that when I was SP so I know how extraordinarily effective that is, to restore public confidence in “the system.”

The long goodbye

 

It must have been extremely difficult and back-breaking. Raising five kids on a school teacher’s salary. Plus, the guests at our house would very often go up to 20 or more. Most of the way, there was no household help. Just the utensils to be washed and the cooking would be something. My Mom bore it all stoically. And, managed to be cheerful. Basically, she is as non-complaining as one can get. 

In her old age, I have wanted to make her as comfortable as possible and shifted to a new house primarily because there is a servant quarter there. Six months into the stay there, she complained of severe stomach disorder. She was not able to describe the symptoms accurately but looked like, the chief complaint was major gastric discomfort. The distress was so acute that she had to be admitted at Apollo, Kolkata. A whole battery of tests didn’t throw up anything significant. With the medications, when the symptoms eased, she was discharged. After returning home, again, the distress rebounded. Various doctors, gastro-enterologist, diabetologist, internal medicine specialist and so on were at their wit’s end. When I asked if any further investigation can be done, the doctors said everything had been tested for; the only thing left was a whole body PET-CT scan but that was not indicated. On my own, I got that too done and the results were normal. 

During all these rounds of doctors and hospitals, one doctor suggested gently that since organically nothing is being found, should I be thinking of a psychiatric consult? Since, as I mentioned earlier, she is very far from being the complaining kind, I didn’t put much store by that and even the doctor was not very convinced about the need. 

Slowly, she took to bed almost the whole day. She stopped all activities, even her Puja in the morning and evening. After some time, she almost stopped eating because of lack of appetite. In front of my eyes, she kept shrinking and withering away, with severe weight loss. After about six months from the onset of the symptoms I had exhausted all other possible doctors and, in desperation, consulted a psychiatrist. After hearing the details and checking the voluminous medical records, he was confident that it was a case of what is called Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). I didn’t share his confidence but tried out the medication (anti-depressant and anti-anxiety) that he prescribed. Lo and behold, the situation improved dramatically. By the second consult, the psychiatrist asked me stop all the medicines prescribed by gastro-enterology. 

Mom is back to her morning walks, pujas, meals, cooking and so on. 

I had read about mental health but never realised that it could have such severe physical manifestations. I am grateful to the psychiatrist’s confidence – probably that stemmed from the fact that his own father is also suffering from MDD. 

Mom has also been diagnosed with early dementia and that is scary. After reading about it, what I gather about dementia is, it is a shrinking of the brain or its capacity. It starts with forgetting things (my Mom’s current stage). If the disease progresses, the patient changes physically, forgets his near and dear ones. The patient can eventually become bedridden and not be able to eat or drink or talk. However, there is a chance that the disease doesn’t progress and I am hoping for that. 

Meanwhile, many things have needed to be recalibrated. For example, I see to it that Mom is never alone. Even when I have to travel, I ask for one of my siblings to come and stand guard or first travel with her to the sibling’s place and keep her there for the duration. When she goes for her walk, I accompany her and after bringing her back, go for my own walk and exercises. I am having to change the lock on the house door so that she can’t open it on her own and wander away. I have locked away all medicines in the house and certain eatables so that she doesn't accidentally overdose/overconsume. I came across a set of very good advice on how to behave around a dementia patient and am reproducing it here:

Dementia is called “the long goodbye.” I am hoping that goodbye never comes or even if it does, it is far away in the future. Meanwhile, I take each day as an adventure anew …

Stop whining, start shining

 

I guess this must be so in other departments. In Police, throughout my career, I kept hearing why the politicians and IAS officers wouldn’t let Police reforms happen so the Policing in India continues to be in a sorry state. Frankly, those big-ticket Police reforms as mandated by the Supreme Court are beyond our control but there are a plethora of reforms we should have done by now if we had not been enslaved by the colonial systems and mindset. 

It is entirely within the powers of the SP or DCP to make the process of registering an FIR easier and more transparent. What does it cost to just tell the officers to register each single complaint? Horrible proliferation in number of cases. Does it matter for promotion or posting? We think it does but it doesn’t. When I joined a district as SP, there was a ceremonial hand-over, a sort of passing the baton from the previous SP to me. All the SHOs of the Police Stations and their supervisors attended to witness. And assess the new incumbent, i.e., me! After the event, and after the predecessor left, I found the guys crowding around so I thought they expected some pearls of wisdom to issue forth from my lips. I scratched my head to come up with something and then told them, look, I don’t want any suppression or minimisation. Any complaint that comes should be registered and under the proper section of law. The expression on their collective face was a picture. Then I told them, all warranties must be arrested and that would be a primary focus during the monthly Crime Conference. Till date, I remember the consternation on their faces. 

Words have consequences. 

In the first month of my assuming charge, the number of dacoities in that small district was four. Compared to four dacoities in the entire previous year. I panicked. If I managed to hike that most heinous of crimes, dacoity, from 4 to 48 in a year, where would I be? I made bold to call the one who was above us all, the Director General & Inspector General of Police and told him. He was intrigued and asked why I was telling him such mundane things. I said there was a request: four dacoities were reported in the previous year, I’d “achieved” four in the first month – could he kindly consider only the detection rate and not the numbers, please? He was non-committal. Unfortunately, none of the four cases in the previous year had been detected; the four cases in my first month were not only detected but about 90 % of the property robbed was recovered. I tried telling the DGP but by then, these were mere statistics for him. Meanwhile, crimes against property declined in the district and I was kind of sitting pretty. 

What happens if you commit a crime and disappear? The cops try for a while and then submit a chargesheet showing you as absconder. The Magistrate then issues a warrant for your arrest.  This is sent to the same Police Station where the crime was committed. You become a warranty. Executing a warrant is the least of priorities for an SHO and it’s just a statistic. Every month, during the Crime Conference, the SP or DCP checks how many warrants were disposed off and how many new ones were received and whether, on balance, the SHO is ahead of the game. So, if a particular warrant is never executed/ disposed off, there’s practically no accountability and the criminal gets away scot-free ... 

I checked the number of warranties and it turned out to be 163. This looked like a low number. I collected the details from the Court records and the actual figure turned out to be 5,617. In the monthly reports, I submitted that figure to my higher-ups and, immediately, there was a query as to how I’d managed to increase the crimes so much within one month of my joining. I replied suitably and was rewarded with further scathing “queries.” Until I left the district, these queries and replies continued and for all I know, they may still be going on, 24 years hence. 

Be that as it may, I set about arresting these people in right earnest. 

I found an able partner-in-crime (actually, partner-in-crime-control) in a young officer who was under training in the district. He told me that he was examining the warrants at a Police Station but the moment he touched one particular warrant, everybody was shivering. It was in the name of one Haren Bishu (name changed). I enquired and found out that he was the right-hand man of the local big leader of the ruling party. When the Chief Minister came visiting, he drove the CM’s car. And so on. There were reportedly seven warrants against him. The courts had given scathing observations and orders regarding non-execution of the warrants. When the local leader met me the next day for something else, I told him about the warrants and asked him to get him to surrender. He hemmed and hawed and went away. Two days later, Haren Bishu was detained on a routine traffic offence and the SHO rang me up. I told him to immediately produce him in Court against the warrants. About an hour or two later, I went on a round of the town to check if there was any disturbance. I found all the shops closed and not a single person on the road in that bustling town. Concerned, I asked one shopkeeper (about to close his shop) as to what the problem was and why the roads were vacant. He said, everyone had gone to the Court to witness Haren Bishu’s arrest – it was such a huge event! It turned out there were actually not seven but 23 warrants pending against him, all for heinous crimes like murder, arson and so on. And, he had never been arrested. Next day onwards, there were queues of people waiting to surrender in the courts against their warrants. It made my life a little easier. 

These are small measures but can cause problems for the SP, generally in terms of transfers. I also saw some unseasonal transfers and attempts at transfers. “Lekin, itne badliyon ke baad bhi, hum nahi badle …” 

[Stop whining, start shining]