Life Falls & Falls

One of the most life-affirmative lessons that I have learnt so far is to look at life as a series of falls. A person falls only when life is running smooth - there is a comfort and subtle complacency in his energy levels. Because that is when a disturbing stimulus permeates the being and sweeps away the comfort of his existence. 

Let us take the analogy of horse-riding; My first fall from the horse-back was effected by Hans (a notorious horse), who was smart enough to understand when I had started trusting him a bit too much and used the apt moment to  push me off - leading me into a parabolic path that seemed to touch the stratosphere.

Now what came naturally to me then and seems to be of analytical interest now, is my reaction immediately after the fall.

When I realised that I was lying on the ground, I could see Hans dancing around, kicking randomly and running across the ground. So I just quietly got up, checked for broken bones/ribs, when I found none - I shouted to the Instructor to get me another horse. It was evident to him and to me that Hans had gone mad, so he got me another horse.In that window of 5minutes, before I got on another horse - I just knew one thing - That if I don't climb a horse immediately, the fear of  the fall might seep in - and then it would be impossible to ride a horse again. I rode again, and made sure that in every other class - I took Hans and tame him to the extent that he behaves like a mule when I am around. But the fall made me learn - that no matter how strong you are, never think that you are stronger than the animal beneath you - because the moment you think like that, complacency comes and another potentially back-breaking fall becomes inevitable.

Life is like a journey where one just moves one from one fall to another, just to enjoy the challenge of getting up. These are the people who live dangerously - some people call them fighters, some see them as incorrigible losers. But for those who keep challenging themselves, nothing is more consuming than testing one's own limits and using the moments of fall as growth stimuli.

Getting up from a fall is a major transition, this process allows one to grow as a person but there is a real risk that he might not - that he may choose comfort against freedom, fear against fearless devotion to life and arrogance against submission. It is here that wisdom is important.

LBSNAA – The colours of the Foundation Course

It’ s a beautiful place to reside in, the very ambiance of the academy with its hills and curves signifies  a sense of stability, that comes naturally to any place with a rocky terrain.

The interesting aspect of doing FC here is that the pace with which the course moves; There are 250+ people to meet and get to know about, trillions of gossips revolving around hundreds of tit-bit events that happen during the day, and to top it all, every week ends with some organised event that adds to the randomness and entropy (some call it excitement) of the course.

It is this brisk pace of the mind, deeply contextuated in the stillness of the spirit, that acts as the continuous underlying theme of the stay here. No matter how random my day goes – with seemingly irrelevant/ trivial classes, or incidents of incoherent (and often defying-ly irrational) behaviour of some batch mates, I can always find my inner peace just sitting out and staring at the majestic topography that this place offers.

Last few weeks that I have spent here have been an experiment in handling randomness – to do something, experience it and then return to the shell that is secured in the presence of few like-minded friends.

"Pratakal ka Atyachar"- Our Skit in the 1st cultural

A lot of my active participation in the FC has been questionable; The skit that I partly scripted and played a role in – was very well-received by the OTs and faculty alike, but only our team knows how many questions were put to us before we performed on stage. There were batchmates who had a blanket objection to their being imitated (Frankly, I thought it was their inflated egos who made them feel that they deserve imitation), while some took it in the right spirit. We were constantly wary of how the faculty will take their own imitations – being the first cultural night, we knew that we have to set the standards and we took the risk of doing things our way.

A Scene from the Bhojpuri Song in 2nd Culturals

A similar story is that of the Bhojpuri item song that we danced on in the second cultural – although the jury is still out on whether it was vulgar or not (or rather, whether the level of vulgarity was within acceptable limits or not :D). A lady faculty member complimented us on the “unapologetic manner” in which we did it while there were a number of differing viewpoints from some batchmates.

I guess the most difficult type of questions for me to answer would be those questioning the logic of my acts, and I won’t care about such questions unless my behavior gets really out-of-the line.

A major departure from the NPA attitude has been that of image consciousness – while in NPA my acts were directed so as to ensure that my low-profile image doesn’t get blurred, here I am just being myself irrespective of the consequences. This isn’t really the safest approach – I have already merited a personal meeting with the disciplinary in charge along with the image of being “culturally active” (some extended it to assume that i would be energetic about everything, irrespective of its stupidity). Given the latter image, my low participation in the childish fete organised yesterday, brought the ire of my batch mates who coordinated it.

One critically important learning from the stay in LBSNAA so far is that the lonely boring moments centred around somber futuristic existential questions can be humorously evaded by gossiping about the most nugatory things in academy life. This is the importance of friends whom you can talk to.

 

Visibly Lost Children

"Juvenile Justice" - The term is radical, indeed, in a country where "Justice" itself is an amorphous concept plagued by selection bias in its delivery.

This is why the Juvenile Justice Act is a "progressive" one - it not just underlines the need to deliver justice to those below 18 but also talks of following an empathetic, needs-based, reformist approach by all stakeholders while that is being done. This blog post is a story of a field-visit that my NPA squad undertook officially to get sensitized about the issues confronting the enforcement of this act.

We were asked to go to a prominent bus stand of Hyderabad and spot "Visibly Lost Children". Mr. Isidor Phillip, the social worker who helped us understand the importance of the act, defined them as children whose childhoods have been snatched away and they are left to fend for themselves in an alien environment with no meaningful choice to exercise.

So, off we went, dressed in our civil clothes, with vague notions of poor children in our minds, and a hidden desire to enjoy this day that has been freed of evening outdoor sessions. All of us have seen them - almost naked, lonely children - begging on our street lights, or selling barely-useful Chinese plastic-ware, or just taking care of their younger sibling on the side of the road. What we haven't done is to try talking to them. When we did try to talk - we were in for a surprise.

Visibly Lost Children who would run away
as soon as we asked personal questions

The moment we asked questions pertaining to their personal lives - families, income, etc - the rag picking boys became suspicious and started to run away. Same was the case with the begging children. So sharp was their instinct to sense abnormal interest that some of the children who were loitering around around, would start to gradually walk away as soon as I or anyone else, would approach them. What have we done to these children so as to make them so suspicious to the entire world around them?

After a couple of hours of spotting helpless children, our teams found one child (age around 10 years) working in a restaurant in abysmal conditions and a girl child lost on the bus stand.

I turned my attention to the child labour Hussain, who was apparently sent off by his poor family, living in northern Karnataka as a sort of repayment of his father's debt to the owner of the restaurant. The boy was really shocked and afraid, as any child of his age, surrounded by 10 strangers in a room where a policeman stands guard outside, would be.

A frightened Hussain

 However, as it turned out, while my squad mates discussed the legal implications of the two cases and the steps to be taken further (due to the complete ignorance of the law amongst the local SHO, some of us had to talk tough on him so as to make him understand that these are not simple run-away cases that can be solved with mere verbal police intervention, they needed the intervention from the CWC), I became very good friends with Hussain. It took a few chocolates, a large number of funny games on my touch-screen phone and few witty comments about the obesity of some of my squad mates to finally make him comfortable. That's when he began to talk.



A pic clicked by Hussain

 The boy didn't mince words in saying that he wanted to go home ("ghar jaana hai"). He described how he had his extended family, friends and parents  in his home town, where he attended school. There came a stage where he would not sit quietly while a serious discussion on his case was on, and would take pictures from my phone. This was when he saw some pics of mine in uniform and asked "Tum police hai kya ji?"  (Are you police?). He also asked me "Tumhara jaat kya hai ji?" (What is your caste?). I was taken aback by this question because, no one had discussed religion or caste since we met. I said, I don't know what caste is and asked him what it is. He replied "Main mussalman, jaat toh hota hai na ji sabka" (I am a Muslim and everyone has a caste).
 

It was a tough 2 hour deliberation session with the
 SHO, until he was told about the Govt. Order

Now let me propound upon the quality of enforcement of the Juvenile Justice Act. For any law to be enforced, there should be a person to enforce it and he should atleast know that he is supposed to enforce it. However, when we interacted with the police officials of that prime urban police station, where NGOs like Divya Disha have spent years in spreading awareness about JJA, we found that except the SHO, very few were aware about the law and the role of police under it. This is when Andhra is considered to be one of the better states in the act's enforcement, what is the state in other states can be left to your imagination.
 
The SHO was in favour of dismissing them there and then. Mr. Isidore Philips had to refer to a govt. order of the same year so as to tell the SHO that Child Welfare Committee (CWC) will be the body to decide upon the two cases.  This is the fate of Govt. Orders on the cutting edges of police organisations. When we don't know the law, how can we implement it?
 
This is where the role of IPS officers becomes important. They can actually make the enforcement meaningful, and once the people get a taste of these much-needed laws, they will begin to demand their enforcement. Until that happens, these officers need to act as change agents.  After all, what excuse have we got in not doing the needful here? There will be no political intervention if we take an illegally-employed child labour from a commercial setup and send him home. We dont need extra funds or man-power to do that (especially in the cities where there are umpteen policemen posted in the name of routine protocol duties), all we need is a desire to deliver justice. So rather than waiting for a Supreme Court-driven initiative to reform our entire organisational setup, let us do our bit to deliver better justice while we can with the laws already there with us.

National Police Academy : A Glimpse

Despite the fact that the training regimen in the National Police Academy gives me absolutely no time for myself and the training often deals with things that are of little interest to me, my stay here has come to be characterised by a sustained subtle feeling of self-fulfilment.

This magnificent feeling is somewhere related to the pace with which life in NPA moves. Every single day that I have spent here has had at least three times more action/activities than any other day of my life spent outside. This is evident in the distorted perception of time that I feel here. It is a common experience that while recollecting something about yesterday, I feel as if it happened maybe a week ago!

In the last few days (i.e. the last 3-4 days), that I have spent here there have been so many new experiences that seem to have covered up for a whole month of buzzing activities in my days before joining NPA; I have come to love horse-riding in this time - much of the credit goes to the fact that I found a horse that complements my personality. His name is SaturnGold and is the most muscular horse amongst the 60 odd horses we get. I had morning classes of horse-riding when SaturnGold cantered (and often started galloping) like an uncaring beast.
            
All that swimming that I have done in the last few days has also added to the enthusiasm and jest. The pool is where I can continuously challenge myself to do more laps. This is also the place where new things can be learnt - rolling underwater to finish the laps, to matching up with the instructor who swims twice as fast as me with seemingly half of the effort.

The Un-Armed Combat classes have also spiced up the days with the practice-oriented modules where we get to work our moves on our squad mates and practise different locks, holds and techniques that will be very relevant in the days ahead.

The Public Speaking module was also a refreshing break from the regular routine. The expert who coached us, knew the tricks and I finally ended up working on my articulation skills. It helped me break the monotony of self-loathing about how I have become a nervous wreck as far as public speaking is concerned. I simulated an experience of mine on the national highway connecting Gokarna and Goa, where the S.P. and the D.M. had to negotiate with a group of 500 protesters who had blocked the highway on the pretext of some trade-related demand. It's surprising to see how agile the mind becomes when called upon to do so!

It's always a pleasure to hear our Director V.N. Rai speak. He has the rare ability to sum up a lifetime's worth of experience and knowledge into simple linguistic constructs that are delivered in a matter-of-fact manner. When he spoke about how police can help address not just the police-related problems of the local people, but also the developmental problems - he made us understand how people can be empowered to do their own work.

Finally, the book that I am reading these days (and which should be over by tomorrow) - Lajja by Taslima Nasrin, helps me to fill up the time when the indoor classes are dealing with something less important or trivial.

Life here has given each one of us a distinct and loud message - Stop the habit of stealing time for yourself from the training activities, rather just know that all this time is your own and immerse yourself in them.

Following the law : Really?

Almost every talk in the academy is referred to as "thought-provoking" by the fatigued probationer, compelled to give the vote of thanks. However, there are few speakers who can actually provoke some thoughts in the numbed minds of the IPS probationers.Satheesh Balan was one such rare speaker. A simple man, with a simple, straight-forward understanding of the world (which only a few can afford, because it needs a non-compromising attitude towards a lot of things typically seen as "worth" compromising for), he spoke about the complete lack of sensitisation in Indian police.

Combined with a number of instances from his personal life, both about pre-IPS and post-IPS days, of how police harassment is everywhere and is present in the most innocuous cases which we have come to perceive as harmless routine.

The most provoking aspect of his speech was how difficult it is to challenge the social norms concerning patriarchy and caste hierarchy. Giving his experiences of implementing the Domestic Violence Act and the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, it was amply clear that there will be occasions when every single individual around an officer will prefer to avoid implementing these laws. It is then that the officer concerned need to ask himself whether he has what it takes to provide justice to the aggrieved even when he has absolutely no support (and often enough, violent opposition) from those around him. It will take officers with conviction and fearless zest who can take pains to make sure that people get what they are legally entitled to, even when their own social setup seeks to keep them perennially deprived.

Today, with laws like RTI, Domestic Violence Act, Juvenile Justice Act, SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, Panchayati Raj Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, etc. - we have a unique problem at our hands. These laws give the official machinery the teeth to act in a socially progressive and naturally just manner, however what it needs is officers with conviction and guts to do what is written. First of all, these officers need to themselves be sensitised enough as to understand that the time for such progressive legislations has come about. Second, they must have the courage and skills to show the way to others (including, their seniors and peers).

I believe if I can hold myself together and do my bit to this effect, I would die happy.

The woes of the India-Bangladesh border

The longest land frontier that India shares with any country is that with Bangladesh. Although I had read much about, inter-alia, the "porosity" of the border, my first-hand brush with the real situation was eye-opening in more ways than one.

Being an IPS probationary officer in Malda, I was advised to visit the border from a particular side. This side has a designated Integrated Check Post and is opened for legitimate cross-border trade at designated times of the day. The import-export business is a lucrative one and the govt. seeks to regulate it through issue of special passports, permits, etc. Apart from inspecting the robustness of immigration and customs checks (the details of which should not be disclosed), I undertook a surprise visit to the entire stretch of the Kaliachak side of border. This is the area known to intelligence agencies world wide as a source of smuggling of fake currencies. What I came across was galling.



A BSF Jawan with the border fence

 


The Grade-3 Fencing

 

One of the BSF commanders had complained of inability to protect the border due to withdrawal of orders to shoot at trespassers. I bought the argument then but found it unconvincing when i saw the fences which were reported to be cut. The fences are of grade-3 type (pic shown) with triple layering of barbed wire which would take at least 20 minutes by even the most experienced set of hands to cut. The border, on the other hand, is patrolled by hundreds of jawans with each one's jurisdiction to be 200 meters. The argument was further questioned By the fact that the border in his side was well-lit and equipped with a siren-alarm system. My doubts were confirmed by a police officer of the local thana under whose jurisdiction it fell. Even the thana officials find it implausible to believe that fence trespassing can happen with such frequency in the most well-equipped segment of the border. One can only then imagine the fate of the unlit and un-equipped segments (and there are thousands of kilometers of those). As our car sped along the bordering fence of this smuggling-prone segment, we saw half dressed BSF jawans springing up from their positions to salute, only a few had their weapons with them, the rest were seemingly disturbed from some other preoccupation. It was easy to figure out that the posts had been empty in certain areas and jawans started rushing to their spots when the news of our travel spread. A large number of them couldn't make it and ended up saluting with one hand while they held their cycles with the other. We are talking about the segment of fence which shows seizures worth crores of fake currency and. This is the alertness level at 11 AM.

However, not all commanders are the same. The fences of the subsequent jurisdiction were better guarded and the jawans knew their responsibility more clearly. My interaction with the commander was impassioned as both of us were equally disturbed by what we could see. He pointed out more loopholes, there was a clear passage that marked there thick fence, the passage was an eye sore as it meant that billions of rupees spent on the much talked about fencing is reduced to waste due to that tiny piece of clear undisturbed passage. Similarly there were culverts and pipelines that connected the two sides. This segment of border had no lights or sound alarm system and yet they had stopped three incidents of "throwing" in the last month. Each time they recovered bundles of fake currency and opiates but failed to nab the smugglers.
In this segment, smuggling takes place through "throwing" i.e. The smuggler on one side of the border literally throws the commodity ( usually FICN but at times, even cattle are heralded across through mechanical throws using improvised platforms).


Residents of the village which is divided by the

fence waiting for the gate to open to go to their houses.




As i went ahead i came across a village that was divided into two by the fence. As my trip had official sanction, i was allowed to walk over to the other side of the border with BSF escorts. Somewhere, roughly 100 meters beyond the fence gate, Bangladesh's territory began. However as we walked on in the village (pic attached), even the villagers couldn't point out unanimously where India ended. There is a marking system that uses pillars and pointers but it is more of cartographic importance and clearly didn't bother the villagers. These hundreds of people were rendered nomads by birth. Children went to school in India (i.e. The part beyond the fence) but could enter and exit only during limited times during day. They had ID cards which thr BSF monitored but One can only imagine how easy it will be for an anti-national element to infiltrate the ranks of villagers ( who clearly had no affiliation to either of the countries) and use their card to cross the fence.

The feeling of cultural and familial brotherhood coupled with the lure of easy money made the whole villages on this segment of the border sympathetic to the acts of smuggling. Their primary source of income depended on these regular crimes. Hence they saw BSF and police as their enemies and officers recounted how they had been attacked often by the villagers with countrymade bombs and arms. When i went to the police outpost responsible for this village I was appalled to see that they have only 3 constables and 3 officers and a cranky mini-bus at their disposal, so patrolling of the area spread across nearly a 100km square becomes out of question and only reactive policing becomes the option. The SP admitted the shortfall and acknowledged that it is only the competence of the officer in charge of that outpost that is allowing it to sustain. To the query of why such shortage of manpower and resources is allowed in such a crucial area for national security, he had enough figures to show me how terribly short-changed the whole district is in terms of officials and automobiles. And he extended the argument to all the districts of Bengal except a few "popular" ones.


Inside a border village, I was "probably"

standing in Indian territory when I took this.





I wish i could conclude the write-up on a hopeful note, but there is little help in sight. The conditions of this region are known to all top officials and politicians. Still I wrote a strongly worded report on what I saw. The solution to these problems need strong political will from the top because only that can ensure a radical addition to and redistribution of resources so as to stem the problems from their roots. The petty corruption that exists in the ranks of policemen seeks justification in the crisis of resources and also feeds on the frustration resulting out of futility of their limited uncoordinated actions.

If we have willing police leadership which is given a clear mandate by the political bosses along with the required resources, there can be a day when the borders of Malda are safe and secure.



Doing the right thing

Discrimination is one of the basic qualities of any human being, no matter how spiritually or materially successful. It is the ability to seperate the right from the wrong. It does involve judgement but is more than judgement; While judgement may be passive and even sub-conscious, discrimination is of active relevance. For example while we may judge smoking to be harmful (to health) and dangerous (potential physical addiction), some of us (or something in us) may choose to accomodate those occasional few puffs in jovial settings with friends.Here discrimination failed us in that instant when we couldn't connect our judgement with the immediate consequence of our action.
It's extremely important for me to examine this yawning gap between judgemental righteousness and actional discrimination. There are a number of factors that cloud our actional intelligence. Any gap between our judgement and actions is bound to produce 'anxiety'. I dont know if thats the right word to use but its that feeling which robs one's life of its simplicity, and it does so slowly. What is interesting is to see how we try to cope with that feeling.
Rationalisation is one oft used technique.eg when we claim that a certain amount of intoxicant wont extrapolate into the big problem that we know to be the logical conclusion of the actions we seek to rationalise. The garb of rationalisation fades off as soon as we try to be ruthlessly judgemental about someone else's actions.Eg. A teetotaller who is a regular smoker may rationalise his smoking but would twist similar arguments to prove that his abstention from alcohol is the most righteous thing to do.

Victimisation-induced contextual justification is another technique. We see this all the time when constables try to justify bribe taking by pointing to appaling monetary remuneration of the government or when senior officials willingly play their part in the spoilt system of policy making and implementing while blaming it on systematic flaws. An unbaised observer is bound to notice atleast a degree of pain and gloom in the concerned person, feelings that rise from that part of him which wishes for a simpler life, even if it would be more difficult to live. But the lack of courage and commitment that is needed to take right actions and the competence required to live them through can never be justified based on contextual difficulties.

There are other methods which less self-aware people use, eg. Absolute indifference (Not really thinking about it) or complete submission (genuinely believing that they are not capable of doing anything about the issues).
However, somewhere deep inside we are all aware of the fundamental truth that we have chosen to feel this helplessness, sadness or moral stress. We know that we can make tougher choices and live a life of lesser gap between our judgements and our actions. Simply put, we can all do the right thing and we all know it.


This writeup would be futile if i dont take anything out of it. The question is how can i ensure that i do the right thing everytime, all the time? While there can be no way of guaranteeeing the perpetuality of wisdom, it can only happen if we go one step at a time. Taking one right decision at a time and conforming our actions to our judgements. There are a few things that can help us do that- first is the belief that the right thing can be done, whether it is to follow the seemingly impossible procedures of policing or it is about running a district without seeking rent for any public service delivery, One has to believe that the right thing is possible.

Second important step is to device ways to allow the right thing to happen One often thinks that doing what is right sets one apart from the crowd and therefore is in natural confrontation with the entire surrounding setup. Although this does happen and one shouldn't be afraid of such a scenario; this may not be true in most of the cases if we are mentally prepared to device systems and procedures in a way that allows and incentivises the right behaviour. Eg there can be ways to survive in one's legal income if one just allows his expenses to stay in their limits and sensitised policing can be made possible by public appreciation of genuine cases.
The third and most decisive factor is the skill that goes into making all this possible. Self-awareness is needed to understand the causes within us that make us take short cuts, after all there is always something for which someone may feel greedy or there is always an emotion that may allow one to be irrational...it is in our understanding of ourself that can act as an early warning system. Courage and dedication to the cause is another key ingredient, i have felt this in my interactions with some social activists, especially those who have knowingly given up greener pastures for a life of purpose.

Anyways, being humans, we are all somewhere in the journey of self-perfection, exactly where we are and how far we want to go, will determine how much we think about our actions and Act according to our thoughts.

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