Down the memory lane......


After clearing the UPSC selection process I was allotted (undivided) Andhra Pradesh cadre as an Indian Police Service officer.

I was trained at Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh. The SHO of Nellore Rural Police Station, a very knowledgeable professional taught me many things.

It was during my training period, which also saw advent of Telugu Desham Party; I saw political rallies of Sri N T Rama Rao. I have never seen a crowd of over two lakhs hailing from Gurugram Haryana where the maximum crowd any political leader could pull was in thousands.

I took charge as Assistant Superintendent of Police, Vijayawada. Among many challenges, which came my way, major one was the barrier of language.

I do recall instances where my subordinated tried to mislead me using my inability to understand the language. I distinctly remember one incident where somebody was stabbed and taken to hospital and I was informed my Inspector that the said person was injured because of an accident. On my reaching the hospital, I got to know he was stabbed by a politician’s younger brother. My driver became my first language teacher and later I engaged a schoolteacher to learn Telugu.

To be continued......