THE WRONG STEPNEY

Dream Range 

"Vivek, I am sending you to what has remained a dream range for me . DIG Jalpaiguri Range, ok?"

I told him, with much feigned humility that it was indeed a privilege to be chosen by the HoPF to live his dream on my promotion to the rank of DIG in 2004. Anyways, as I had the security of retention of a government flat at 32, Ballygunge Circular Road, where Bhaiya  also stayed in the same RHE, I went to what was a moth eaten range it now remained, leaving my family behind. When I was SP Darjeeling, the Range DIG, Jalpaiguri looked after all the districts north of Farakka ( I hope my readers born and brought up in Kolkata can name all of them ) but now it was just Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts. 

Prod  for peacekeeping 

When my batchmate Zulfiquar messaged from Freetown  to try for a Sierra Leone  UN Peacekeeping assignment (UNAMSIL)  , I jumped at it. If one has to stay away from the family, then one might as well go abroad, earn some dollars and acquire  international work experience to boot. As luck would have it, I was selected and on 4th of September, 2004, along with  Amar Pandey, Indu Bhushan , Tanamay Ray Choudhury and Vimal Bisht , we boarded an Air France  plane, transited from Paris to a place called Conakry , and then were heli lifted to touch down  on the UN Helipad just as the sun sank into the Atlantic beyond the Lumley beach.

The why of UN Missions 

Many are curious to know what a UN Peacekeeping Mission is and why policemen are  taken on these missions. Even though not mentioned explicitly , peacekeeping draws its locus from Chapter VI( Pacific Settlement of Disputes )  and VI of the UN Charter It is a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions to progress towards sustainable peace. United Nations peacekeepers have taken part in a total of 72 missions around the globe, 14 of which continue today. The peacekeeping force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.

Missions have been established for a variety of reasons- to observe and maintain ceasefire like the 1948 Arab- Israeli conflict ( UNTSO) ; international conflicts like in Cyprus between the ethnic Greeks and Turks ( 1964)  or Iraq- Kuwait Observation Mission in 1991; to facilitate  decolonization  like ONUC in Congo (from Belgium);  a large number of Middle Eastern conflicts like UNOGIL in 1958 at Lebanon,UNYOM in Yemenin 1963; civil wars  related to ethnic cleansing and genocide like in Rwanda and the ones following break up of Yugoslavia ( the latter saw eight missions), Somalia, Haiti, Sudan, Liberia , Burundi, Ivory Coast ,etc; and for independence facilitation in Namibia, East Timor and Western  Sahara.

Moneybags peacekeepers 

UN assignments evince mixed reactions from colleagues and friends. Most think of them as fun jaunt with dollars in the bargain. It is often forgotten that UN Peacekeeping Missions are established in countries in violent conflict , and chances of falling in the crossfire - either being taken hostage or even getting injured or killed remains a real threat. UNAMSIL , when it wound up, had a total of 192 UN fatalities: 69 troops, 2 military observers, 2 international civilians, 16 local civilians, 1 police, and 2 others ( a memorial in honour of martyr Havildar Krishna Kumar of INDBATT in UNAMSIL built by locals at a place called Daru is affixed), In an earlier Mission to Mozambique in mid 1990s, a peacekeeper from West Bengal was taken as hostage. 4207 ( maximum 175 from India) have died - I think now the figure is higher. When I was Sierra Leone, I had received a mail from DPKO to assist some officers from DPR Congo to render assistance to their officers for exhuming the bodies of that country’s peacekeepers who had succumbed to Lassa Fever- and given its infectivity, the medical protocol demanded an immediate burial in graves deeper than the normal and exhumation only after six years.

UNAMSIL 

The Mission in Sierra Leone called UNAMSIL was established in 1999 to end the civil war , after consolidatory work by a previous mission called United Nations Observers Mission in Sierra Leone or UNOMSIL . It was to implement the Lomé Accord which included demobilisation and disarmament of the RUF, a rebel outfit supported by the the renegade President Charles Taylor of Liberia , and their reintegration ; protection of civilians ; humanitarian assistance, etc. The Civil War in Sierra Leone had been one of the bloodiest - killings, amputations, sexual assaults, vandalism and arson, up-roofing of houses and destruction of community/government properties. 

The initial  years 

The initial years of the Mission had been rather eventful, one of which was Operation Khukhri-

a joint land and air British and Indian Army units of the UN to rescue over 500 peacekeepers from Kailahun who had been surrounded by RUF rebels - this operation was to inspire a movie by the same name starring Shah Rukh Khan. However, by the time we reached in 2004 , peace had been largely established , but the Indian army which was in the lead in the initially tough years of conflict, had withdrawn .When we reached , it was the Pakistani Army under its Force Commander Maj Gen Sajjad Akram which was in the lead - my first UN Peace Medal was pinned by him only.  

Induction into the Mission

The start of the  mission was a bit stressful. We were lodged in the ground floor rooms of Hotel Mammyoko, the HQ of UNAMSIL. Wary of contacting cerebral malaria, we went out in  full sleeves- but despite precautions, all of us contacted the cerebral malaria- yours truly twice. Unfortunately, the first test for motor driving permit was conducted by one Irish officer Francis - and none of us could pass. We didn't know, like I believe 90% of Indian drivers,  who has the right of way among vehicles approaching a roundabout or a crossing, how often to look in the rear view mirror or even pull up  the vehicle properly ( later on, after a month of two, under a benign Cameroonian examiner, we passed our tests). Tanamay and Vimal hyper stressed poor Indubhushan suggesting, after the first failure, a second one could invite repatriation! It did not help that UN  CIVPOL ( Civilian Police) Commissioner was a bit hostile and sent us to the provinces - and me to the most distant, Kailahun. 

Anyway, there were silver linings. Firstly our Indian colleagues, Zulfiquar and Thota Rao, at whose house we would visit and  stay during HQ visits, were immensely helpful . For most of the evenings, the only source of light came from the candles mounted on empty bottles of Jim Beam - the National Power Authority was a hugely Non Performing Asset.  Secondly, there were other senior Indians, notable Major General Bhagat (Retd), Rajinder Dhawan and a large number of other countrymen in the technical services of the Mission, Thirdly,  the Pakistanis, being in command , were quite helpful. Post Kargil wounds had healed , and it was quite a bonhomie. The Pakistani Army was all over.  Fourthly, Amar and I had become members of Freetown Golf Club - an 18 hole course with browns instead of greens - by the Atlantic. At the club, we made friends with one Vinod , an Indian married to a Sierra Leonean lawyer , Luba, a woman of Chinese- Russian extract whose ex husband was a local minister in a previous government, many officers of IMATT ( mostly British) and even a Lutheran Pastor from Germany called Fritz,  Of course, we gradually made friends with a large number of UNAMSIL colleagues from other parts of the world as well. It was my first exposure to truly international cuisine and lovely beaches as well.

Kailahun and  PAKBATT mohabbat 

I was initially posted to Kailahun, an eastern province abutting Liberia. Kailahun also had a PAKBAT HQ which  was also the provider of our meals . Every evening from the team site where the CIVPOLS ( Civilian police of UN ) and MILOBS ( Military Observers of the UN) stayed next to a mosque , two team site vehicles would go to fetch biryani and korma from the PAKBATT kitchen at a nominal charge of a dollar per meal , which was good enough for two meals, dinner and lunch. Breakfast was milk and muesli and egg at the team site which was equipped with a coffee machine, microwave, fridge and a stove. 

There was this Uruguayan MILOB  ( Military Observer ) who would insist that I go with him .

“Vivek, they pamper and give you huge quantities of food , but they starve me.” 

“Saab, bahut khata hai yeh mota ,” Havildar Sikandar Khan would tell me”, chaar aadmi ka khana akele kha jataa hai.” 

When the unit wound up and departed, we moved into the site vacated by PAKBATT. While leaving, the Havildar handed me a huge store of jams, ketchup, juices, pickles, etc. 

The PAK BATT would  distribute biryani twice a day to about 30-50 people everyday, as part of its community outreach. When it was leaving, as  part of Mission drawdown, I asked the local police station commander , one Sylvester Kamara, whether he apprehends unrest by the people who would no longer get free food. He said, absolutely not. All these people were solvent enough to have food at home, it is just that when free food was offered, no one refused. And he was bang on target. There was no murmur of protest. 

Flat tyre 

When I returned to Freetown from Kailahun , and later assumed the charge of OIC CIVPOL ( heading the UN Civilian Police ) , the bonhomie continued. Maj. General Bhagat was heading the Mission integrated technical services , and often he would organise parties where Pakistani military officers were sometimes invited - and the language of the evenings would generally be Punjabi.  My Punjabi being even worse than my driving , I limited my interest to food and beverage, and gossip with the Pakistani police officers -  one was a Sindhi and other a Baluchi , both not really enamoured of the  Army and the Punjabis in their country. 

Once , I had just returned to Mammyoko Hotel from Koidu where my colleague Tanamay was located. It was a long drive, and I had driven alone in the Nissan Patrol .The Nissan Patrol was issued to heads of sections , but the basic and almost omnipresent vehicle of the MIssion was  the smaller  Toyota 4 wheel drive model. On return , after an almost 350 km journey, through jungles , mud tracks , and deserted highways , I left the office to go out for lunch, only to find there was a flat tyre in my car. Major Zaman who was walking with me when I spotted it,  asked me to leave the matter , and instead asked one of his Havildars to change the tyre and get the punctured one fixed at the workshop. I was grateful, I had never replaced a flat tyre , except once in a test on Motor Mechanics Test at NPA, Hyderabad. 

We walked back for lunch, and when I returned, the Havildar was there to hand me the keys.

“Shukriya,” I thanked him.

“Janaab, ik baat bolni thhi.”

“Boliye.”

“Khuda ka shukr hai.”

“Kya hua?”

“Aapki  stepney iss gaadi ki  thhi hi nahin. “

“What?  Kiski thhi ?” I blurted , in alarm .

Scenes of vehicles , pulled up for running road repairs, in alarmingly  empty stretches in dark hours  on the Freetown - Koidu highway, flashed by in my mind. 

“Toyota ki thhi,” he smiled, saluted, and walked away.  

IN THE SARDAR's SHADOW

“The College is the first institution of its kind in India.  It has no precedents to look back upon but has an inspiring example to set for future generations.  It has to build itself and build others….-

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on the Central Police Training College, later the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy

Visited the Sardar Vallabhbhai  National Police Academy , Hyderabad on 16th and 17 th October-  for the first time since COVID . There was an invite for a lecture on Road Safety Interventions . I am passionate about road safety, and thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as ADG Traffic for over three years- and I was delighted to go. 

Hyderabad is by far my favourite amongst the cities of the south , having undergone Basic training at the Academy during 1988-1990 .Since then , I have visited the academy many times - for various in- services courses ,as well as the  25th and 30th batch reunions . 

The Central Police Training College was established in 1948 at Mt. Abu as a  central institution to train IPS  - operating out of unused Army barracks, the rented rooms of Hotel Rajputana  and Abu Lawrence School. It was upgraded as an Academy in 1967,  and two years after admitting the first  woman officer to its ranks , it shifted to Hyderabad in 1975 . Located on the Bengaluru highway at the then village Shivarampally, the Academy has grown by leaps and  bounds  - having trained 73 batches of IPS officers  as well as officers from Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Afghanistan. It conducts a large number of mid-career training programmes for senior police officers as well as officers of other allied departments. 

As we approached the Academy, the journey became a bit bumpy since a flyover was under construction. Flyover building activity in Hyderabad has always been prolific - as the city grew exponentially from mid 1990s. During my training days, whenever we would go out of NPA, , we would turn right only to go the stables , the dispensary and a dhaba. Otherwise , it was always a left turn as we entered the city by the river bridges over Musi to Koti and onwards towards Husain Sagar and Tank Bund . Now one hardly turns left - airport is to the right and the huge urban build up ,  approachable by an elevated flyover , is in that direction. I am of course nostalgic about the old days as all these areas were earlier a huge swathe of empty lands with rocks of various shapes and sizes that made the sunsets look so scenic. 

It was close to 11 in the night that the vehicle took me up the Vallabh Shikhar and deposited me at the Rajasthan Bhavan . Built in the traditional Rajasthani style of architecture , it now occupies a space which we earlier used for rock climbing - and a giant rock has been retained in situ as a landscaping prop . It also overlooks the Mir Alam Tank - sparsely inhabited during my training days , now a humongous cluster . Went to sleep straight as I had already consumed a huge G.O.A.T cheese mutton burger from Pronto. 

It was a lazy start in the morning. Had wanted to swim , but the academy pool is closed on Mondays for cleaning . So I went out for the usual walk . The academy is now dotted with buildings , as training demands have grown. The academy seems to be in race with the city it is situated in so far as construction activities go. There is a vertical of Mid Career Training programmes   - though has now lost a lot of sheen as they have  snipped the foreign leg of the programme . The present AD MCTP informed me that the last phase V batch which  went abroad was in 2015 - the year I did alongwith a number of my batchmates - Zulfi , Bhaskie, Ramesh , Anil , Sanjay, Rohit and many more - and even my younger brother Vikas . 

However , a stroll in the academy sans the IPS probationers , is rather insipid . This is

the time when either the PT ground or the parade ground is dotted with probationers in different stages of toil - the sight is energising and also evocative . I went past the empty parade ground , the PT ground , the obstacle courses , a clutch of new buildings to my left and then hit the stadium. It is now named after Ashok Kamte of 1989 batch  , an outstanding sportsman, a sterling officer who lost his life in the 26/11 Mumbai attack . There is a synthetic track now , in place of cinder track earlier . Two records still stand out in the name of my batch- 4X100 M relay and javelin throw ( Brij Raj).

On my return from the stadium , went  up to the imposing statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Sardar perches over an elevation - keeping vigil over the flock. He is the central figure , his name affixed to the academy since 1974 . The IPS  is because of his strident assertion that the country needed All India Services to maintain its unity - his statue a mirror for all of us to reflect, introspect, and correct.

There is hardly a patch in the academy premise that doesn’t trigger  fond memories - but alas no batchmate or faculty  was around to share and reminisce with. My  whole batch had been making a programme to visit the academy when Atul Karwal , the batch topper, Evererester , prankster , dancer , singer , influencer, triathlete and what not was the Director  of NPA.  But he is transferred now and heads the NDRF. Had he been around , would have surely stayed over  to spend an evening , instead of the hurried retreat after collecting Biryani from a Paradise outlet en route the airport . 

Later in the day when I set out to deliver my lecture, I went all alone and sat under the Sardar’s portrait in the Central IPS Mess lounge , the batch remaining ever present in the frame by virtue of having presented the walnut table with inlay works in the central sofa enclosure . Atul has swapped the lounge with the dining area and extended the earlier lounge to accommodate a whopping 192 hungry probationers to dine at a  go. The dining area now looked much larger , and smelt stronger of the menu served during our days.

The lecture was delivered post lunch - at 3 pm . The MCTP building is now named

after Randhir Verma of 1974 batch, a gallant officer awarded the Ashok Chakra for his daring bid to foil a bank dacoity by suspected terrorists armed with AK 47s . Sri Verma was a hero of sorts in Bihar - brave, helpful and possessing unimpeachable integrity. Winner of many death defying battles , he had shot down the dreaded Kamdeo Singh and contained the tribal agitation in Chaibasa. “ In the  shadow of  of your gigantic achievements we pitch our miserable little tents, “  Sri Manoje Nath , his senior by a year , would write about him in a hagiographic requiem . After joining the service, I had visited Dhanbad and my cousin Pradeep Bhaiya took me to meet him. It was Diwali, he was so humble and self effacing, nary a swagger, and my last memory of his is he taking hold of some crackers from his wary son , stabilizing him, and bursting them nonchalantly. 

There were about 24 officers of the ranks of SP and Addl SP. It is tough to engage a group after lunch and siesta, but I plodded on. The group had  the usual mix of interested , disinterested , and  those in siesta . I think I did well as per the session feedback scores communicated the following day  - but more than that I am happy to note that NPA has taken taken it up in earnest to organise training courses on not just traffic management but on road safety as well.

I always find it very engaging and rewarding to meet colleagues younger and from different places. It was no different with the Course Director Bhushan Gulabrao Borase of 2009 batch. A keen learner in the field of blockchain technology and road safety, he confirmed what I had discovered on a couple of occasions in West Bengal .  I had information, and on two occasions , evidence  that sometimes false road traffic fatal accidents cases were being lodged involving snake bite or electrocution or even drowning victims to claim false insurance - by a cabal of touts, autopsy surgeons ,policemen , insurance agents. , etc . But what Bhushan told me took my breath away - the Special Task Force of Haryana busted a gang whose modus operandi was to target terminally ill cancer patients of Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical SCiences, Rohtak, approach relatives to buy insurance policies , pass of the death as road accident  , and claim insurance. Its SP  Virender Vij, younger brother of my batchmate Rajinder, said the gang committed 281 such offences, and the seizure included Rs 60 lakhs cash, 53 ATM cards, 41 Cheque Books, 38 OPD cards, 40 policy papers, 14 passbooks , four mobile phones and 66 new kits of different banks.

After the lecture , went back to Rajasthan Bhawan, and poured over the Indian Express over a cup of tea. The news which stood out was the introduction of Hindi  as medium of instruction in the study of allopathy medicine . Medical practitioners have been divided , and already the Facebook pages had carried out a humorous take on it . Hindi always has a tough time - it is indigenous but as cementing agent, it has to yield ground to a  language of foreign origin , English . 

But I missed The Hindu. I was addicted to its cryptic crossword. Such was my association with the Hindu quiz that in the batch yearbook , its editor  and my good friend Pankaj Singh wrote : 

Did you ever realise why the last page of the The Hindu is often vandalised ? Well, you only have to look for VS who , armed with the Hindu crossword, would be muttering possible combinations, anagrams, etc and trying to spoil the neighbour .