Goan rhapsody continues…..

Once things settled down, I decided to sit back and enjoy the game from one of the stands. To my pleasant surprise, the health minister came up to me and thanked me profusely for our well-planned deployment. Coming after the initial acrimony between us, his gesture was gratifying. We shook hands and hugged each other. This encounter with a Goa politico had come to a happy end. We met each other several times after, always warmly and cordially, until my tenure came to an abrupt end in October that year, with my transfer back to Delhi. I had spent all of eleven months in Goa, replete with skirmishes with local politicos—perhaps the reason behind my premature exit.

I am not sure if Goa is a microcosm of other Indian states where the police routinely work under the local political leadership. Maybe my experiences are nothing extraordinary, and my colleagues have faced even more harrowing situations at the hands of their political masters. But nonetheless,     as these experiences sharply contrasted with my earlier experiences of dealing with politicians, I decided to pen them down for my readers. The next time you visit Goa, remember that behind the sylvan surroundings of the beach haven exists a seamy underbelly of unscrupulous elements in the garb of local netas, whom only true-life ‘Singhams’ and ‘Simmbas’ can keep in their place.

Concluded….

Next up – Moon Gazer