I joined the National Academy of Administration in 1972. One of my earliest memories of that year is of the Rock Climbing Course I attended in Uttarkashi for about a month soon after joining.
There were about 20 of us in the group, four of them girls, including me. The three other girls were Sunita Dingra (now Sunita Mukherjee),I A S, presently Resident Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh in New Delhi; Indu Bala of the Central Services and Kiran Bedi, India's best known woman police officer. Sunita and Indu were always busy running errands, looking after the kitchen, organising interesting menus with the limited supplies we got. Sunita was like a mother hen, feeding all of us, and Indu, her able assistant. Kiran was not at all interested in the camp kitchen. I too found there were already too many people working there. So we two spent our evenings writing letters to our fiances (both of us were already engaged) and looking out for the tiny village post offices to post our letters.
Kiran was the first woman officer to be admitted into the Indian Police Service. All efforts were made to discourage her from joining the police force. However we all stood by her and fought the authorities along with her to enable women to enter the I.P.S. Ultimately, the women's cause won, mainly due to the presence of Mrs.Indira Gandhi, who was the then Prime Minister.
Kiran has paid a high price for this achievement by compromising a great deal in her personal life. The sacrifices and difficulties, willingly and voluntarily undertaken by her, have paved the way for more humane treatment for other women officers entering the police force. Today, the women's police is a force to reckon with, especially in Tamil Nadu, where the Government has opened 'All Women Police Stations' in every district, thereby giving encouragement to women police officers.
Coming back to Kiran, she was also Asian Lawn Tennis Champion and one of our best horse riders. She was stronger than most men in the National Academy of Administration. During our fight, when the authorities told us women could not join the police department because they were weak, it was really a good laugh. The fact of Kiran's physical fitness made the women's victory possible. To join the police, women had to be physically, mentally and spiritually of the best, and Kiran was and is all that.
We also had many interesting men in the group. The group leader Raza-Hussain, a Shia Muslim from UP, was an ex-student of St.Stephens College, Delhi, a keen mountaineer and a great group leader. He was engaged to a Kashmiri Hindu girl. They subsequently got married and lived happily. Initially, there was some tension between him and me. He didn't seem too keen on my joining the course. Perhaps he did not think I could do it. But as the days went by, we understood and appreciated each other better and by the end of the course, we were great friends. He was great with mountains and kept the group together. Last I heard was that Raza had resigned from the I.A.S. and perhaps moved to England to teach at Oxford.
Another interesting person was Tinu Barara, a Sikh gentleman, a keen photographer, who was my friend, philosopher and guide during this course and taught me photography. We took some breath-taking pictures at Gangotri and Gomukh. Tinu later taught me developing and enlarging also, and both of us remained active members of the photographic club of the National Academy. Tinu has since left the I.A.S. and presently works for the Metro Water Authority of Los Angeles in the US. He is one of the best officers I have ever come across.
Another person I remember is Kesar, also a Sikh, from the Punjab Cadre. Kesar was a typical outgoing, friendly, hospitable, prototype of a full-of-life Punjabi male without being 'chauvinistic'. A great organiser and interested in cooking and cultural activities, he used to organise 'Bhangda' and other programmes at the Academy. I remember Kesar once forced me to do the role of Sita with himself playing Ravana in a dance drama performed when President V.V.Giri visited the Academy.
Kesar was never too academic, but in a group situation, always made himself useful. I remember when Kesar, O.V.Giri (a grandson of the President, who unfortunately died young), Prahalad Mahishi and I were to do a group assignment, Kesar busied himself preparing wheat halwa at midnight for us. While we were arranging reference books, stationery and all that, he was arranging the stove, kerosene, wheat, sugar and what not for the halwa. It was motivation to eat this halwa that kept us working the whole night and our group turned out a really good assignment in the end.
(to be continued next week)
