Police in Blunderland - Bibhuti Dash

This is a fun and informative read, written by retired IPS Officer Bibhuti Dash. It gives a peek into the world of cops in India - an area that most of us are curious to know about. The book is also a refreshing change from books normally written by beaurocrats which have a serious tone and an I-know-all attitude. Bibhuti Dash stays grounded, pokes fun at himself, is honest and forthcoming and says it like it is. Bibhuti is an alumnus of Hindu College, Delhi University, IIM, Bangalore, Harvard University and holds a Ph.D from IIT, Delhi (pretty much checked off all great institutions). He is also a recipient of the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, Police Medal for Meritorious Service, UN Peace Medals and DG's Commendations. 

The book has abut 40 pieces, all of a nice readable length, all of them with tongue-in-cheek humour, and all of them providing an insight into the life of a policeman in India. The first article set the tone where he protests against Shashi Tharoor writing a book titled 'Why I am a Hindu'. Dash reminiscinces his days at Hindu College and says he is more qualified to be a Hindu than a Stephanian like Tharoor. He dives into one of the high profile cases he solved - the Purulia arms drop case where the main suspects were apprehended thanks Dash's investigative work. He writes about incidents with loyal but corrupt subordinates, egoistic officers who would not see eye to eye with peers, families of officers who would collect bribes, meeting celebrity cricketers (Ravi Shastri for instance who came to collect his Audi in 1985) when Dash was the officer concerned, Union troubles, handling sensitive areas and mobs in Calcutta, quirky peers who would not spend any money, his carrying a resignation letter in his pocket so to speak,finding his name in the list of officers to whom the bribes are distributed when he actually never demanded or got one (it's a smooth well oiled system), of politicians and their sons, high-profile Ponzi or chit fund scheme fraudsters, and so much more.

Dash has a funny bone that keeps the reading light even though some of the subjects are heavy and sensitive. I always feel that people who have a sense of humour are also people who are compassionate and I could see how he does not judge harshly many of those who worked with him who chose the wrong ways. He merely laughs about it and gets along. 

The book is actually a collection of blogs from his site https://b-b-dash.blogspot.com (domain title 'Whatever it is, I am against it'). I think I will now check his blog out to read more stories. Thanks Raja for gifting me this book and thanks Dash for writing it. Very enjoyable!